ABSTRACT
Medical interventions are initially focusing on the proximal mechanisms of aging. This chapter discusses how an extended healthspan, the number of years spent free of disability, will be achieved, and how a healthy aging population might change society and culture. Predicting the future, especially in the rapidly changing world of biotechnology, can be challenging. The chapter focuses primarily on healthspan, not life span, although most experts expect that a healthier older population will result in gains of life expectancy. It discusses how interventions extending the healthspan will be implemented into the health-care system. Healthspan reflects the number of years in the life span that are spent being free of time-dependent disability. Calculating the healthspan requires measures of life span and disability. Accurate and reliable measures of life span and disability are necessary to determine if interventions aimed at increasing healthspan are effective. Healthspan will only be as accurate as the variables in its equation.
