Healthy Life Expectancy: Living Longer, Living Better
Longevity is not measured only in years, but in quality of life. Reaching advanced ages with good health, autonomy, meaningful relationships, and a sense of purpose should not be a privilege—it must be a shared right. That is the starting point of this section: to understand that a long life is only desirable if it is a life well lived.
At CENIE, we have placed healthy life expectancy as one of our three major strategic priorities. And we do so for a fundamental reason: to move beyond the uncritical use of life expectancy as an indicator, which has become a common reference—political, media, technical—but which masks deep social and territorial inequalities and says very little about true well-being. Healthy life expectancy allows us to ask a different question: it is not just about how many years we live, but how we live them.
In this context, prevention becomes an essential pillar. Prevention is not only about avoiding disease—it is about creating conditions for well-being from the earliest stages of life. It means rethinking our health systems, our social policies, our environments, and our lifestyles, with a holistic perspective that embraces the physical, mental, social, and emotional dimensions.
Healthy life expectancy demands foresight, innovation, and shared responsibility. It implies transforming the current care model—still centered on curative intervention—toward an approach that prioritizes care, support, and community-based action. Investing in prevention also means reallocating resources, reshaping priorities, and redesigning systems.
In this paradigm shift, science is an indispensable ally. Advances in medicine, neuroscience, aging biology, and public health are opening new possibilities for earlier diagnosis, better intervention, and more personalized care. But knowledge alone is not enough—it must be understood, shared, and applied within society.
International bodies such as the WHO and the European Union agree on the urgency of this shift. Promoting active and healthy aging requires not only political frameworks, but also new programs, technologies, and care cultures, capable of responding to the social, economic, and ethical challenges of the new longevity.
CENIE promotes a critical, committed, and evidence-based approach, which understands that healthy life expectancy is not a technical or individual matter, but a social construction. We invite you to explore this section, where you will find research, data, perspectives, and experiences that help illuminate one of the most decisive challenges—and opportunities—of our time.