A person’s health span is the length of time that the person is healthy—not just alive.
Deeper dive
It’s thought the term was first coined by gerontologists John Rowe and Robert Kahn in 1987 in an article in Science:
“A revolutionary increase in lifespan has already occurred. A corresponding increase in health span, the maintenance of full function as nearly as possible to the end of life, should be the next gerontological goal.”
However, being “healthy” means different things to different people. A better definition might include being free from serious disease, according to experts at the Harvey Friedman Center for Aging, Washington University, St. Louis. A disease is considered to be serious if it is a leading cause of death, such as heart disease, stroke, lung cancer, COPD, Alzheimer’s disease or diabetes. They point out that “healthspan is a socioeconomic issue, too. There is a widening gap in life expectancy in different geographic regions of the US.3 Because lifespan and healthspan are intimately related, focusing on healthspan should help level the wellness playing field for more people.”
Researchers are investigating multiple avenues to help humans extend years of healthy life. Interventions such as Caloric restriction (CR) and exercise, as well as pharmacologic strategies (resveratrol, rapamycin, metformin, senolytics), are well established to improve indicators of health and aging,