Evidence map›Paper›PMID 39375565›Full record

ArticleNature aging2024

Implausibility of radical life extension in humans in the twenty-first century.

S Jay Olshansky, Bradley J Willcox, Lloyd Demetrius, Hiram Beltrán-Sánchez

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Nature aging, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 45 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
45citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

45 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Article
  3. Article
  4. The long-lived immune system of centenarians.Nature reviews. Immunology · 2026
    Review
  5. Review
  6. Article
  7. Review
  8. Article
  9. Article
  10. Foods (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026
    Article
  11. Review
  12. Article
  13. Article
  14. Insights into US life expectancy stagnation from birth cohort mortality dynamics.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026
    Article
  15. Article
  16. Review
  17. Review
  18. Article
  19. Article
  20. Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

S Jay OlshanskyUniversity of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA. sjayo@uic.edu.ORCID 0000-0001-6956-5518
Bradley J WillcoxUniversity of Hawaii and Kuakini Medical Center, Honolulu, HI, USA.
Lloyd DemetriusHarvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
Hiram Beltrán-SánchezUniversity of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA.

Funding

Productive and Leisure Activities and Cognition in Later LifeP20GM125526 · NIGMS · KUAKINI MEDICAL CENTER · PI WILLCOX, BRADLEY JOHN · 2019 to 2023
$12.0M
FOXO3 Genotype, InflammAging, Cardiovascular Disease, and Dementia. Kuakini Hawaii Lifespan Study III. Administrative Supplement.R01AG027060 · NIA · KUAKINI MEDICAL CENTER · PI Gregory J. Tranah, BRADLEY JOHN WILLCOX · 2005 to 2026
$8.1M
Scientific and Technical CoreP2CHD041022 · NICHD · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES · PI HIRAM BELTRAN-SANCHEZ · 2016 to 2026
$6.9M
LAMBdA: The Latin American Mortality DatabaseR01AG052030 · NIA · UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON · PI PALLONI, ALBERTO B. · 2016 to 2020
$1.3M
NIA NIH HHS R01 AG027060NIA NIH HHS R01 AG052030NICHD NIH HHS P2C HD041022NIGMS NIH HHS P20 GM125526U.S. Department of Health & Human Services | NIH | Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) P2C-HD041022U.S. Department of Health & Human Services | NIH | National Institute on Aging (U.S. National Institute on Aging) R01AG027060U.S. Department of Health & Human Services | NIH | National Institute on Aging (U.S. National Institute on Aging) R01AG052030
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Over the course of the twentieth century, human life expectancy at birth rose in high-income nations by approximately 30 years, largely driven by advances in public health and medicine. Mortality reduction was observed initially at an early age and continued into middle and older ages. However, it was unclear whether this phenomenon and the resulting accelerated rise in life expectancy would continue into the twenty-first century. Here using demographic survivorship metrics from national vital statistics in the eight countries with the longest-lived populations (Australia, France, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland) and in Hong Kong and the United States from 1990 to 2019, we explored recent trends in death rates and life expectancy. We found that, since 1990, improvements overall in life expectancy have decelerated. Our analysis also revealed that resistance to improvements in life expectancy increased while lifespan inequality declined and mortality compression occurred. Our analysis suggests that survival to age 100 years is unlikely to exceed 15% for females and 5% for males, altogether suggesting that, unless the processes of biological aging can be markedly slowed, radical human life extension is implausible in this century.

Indexed as

Life ExpectancyAdultAgedAged, 80 and overAgingAustraliaFemaleFranceHong KongHumansJapanLongevityMaleMiddle AgedMortalityRepublic of Korea

Identifiers

PMID39375565
PMCPMC11564081

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.