The Ups and Downs of Living Longer

December 20, 2012

People are living longer, but long-term sickness has increased too.

From VOA Learning English, this is the Health Report in Special English.

A new study says people are living longer, but many are living longer in poor health. Researchers found that life expectancy has increased by about five years since 1990. On average, men worldwide can expect to live 67 and a half years. Women can expect to live to age 73.

Almost 500 researchers in 50 countries took part in the study of global disease and disability. The findings appear in a series of articles in the Lancet. Richard Horton is the medical journal's editor-in-chief.

"All of us in the world of health focus on diseases and often bad news. Actually, the Global Burden of Disease 2010 Study broadly presents very good news."

The research found that far fewer people died of measles, tetanus, respiratory problems and diarrheal diseases in 2010 than in 1990. Deaths from infections, childbirth-related problems and malnutrition fell about 17 percent to 13.2 million.

Global efforts have focused on reducing HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. HIV/AIDS deaths have dropped since 2006, and TB deaths fell almost 20 percent since 1990. But each of these diseases still kills more than a million people every year. The number of malaria deaths increased by an estimated 20 percent, to almost 1.2 million in 2010.