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Missing centenarians are an international concern

Nature Aging volume 4, pages 277–278 (2024)Cite this article

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The demographic transition represented by the marked increase in the worldwide aging index over the past 50 years (especially in low- and middle-income countries) will pose a challenge to healthcare systems and professionals in the coming years, owing to an increasing burden of age-related chronic diseases. It is estimated that by the year 2050, just over 30% of the global population will be over 65 years old1. For this reason, the United Nations declared the period from 2021 to 2030 as the ‘Decade of Healthy Aging’, with the aim of planning and restructuring missions, action plans, and health and research policies to promote healthy aging.

Centenarians (those aged 100 years and over) could be the ultimate model of healthy aging. This population represents the pinnacle of extreme longevity, and of biological resilience, resistance and adaptation to the environment, lifestyles and risk factors for illness2. Centenarians often exhibit healthy phenotypes and a low prevalence of chronic diseases3, which reflects the coveted healthy lifespan that we all aspire to achieve. Furthermore, studying these individuals has revealed molecular, genetic, epigenetic and proteodynamics mechanisms4 that provide valuable information for discovering aging biomarkers with predictive and prognostic potential for vitality, functional capacity, age-related decline, morbidity, mortality and interventions5. Despite the wealth of original and groundbreaking evidence that is obtainable from centenarians, however, active and documented prospective cohorts — as well as exclusive research on these individuals — are limited. In several places around the globe, data and research on centenarians are lacking.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Health Research and Innovation Center, Coosalud EPS, Cartagena, Colombia

    Ivan Lozada-Martinez & Juan-Manuel Anaya

Authors
  1. Ivan Lozada-Martinez
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  2. Juan-Manuel Anaya
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Contributions

I.L.M. conceptualized the study. Both authors contributed to the investigation, writing the original draft, and reviewing and editing the manuscript. Both authors approved the final version.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ivan Lozada-Martinez.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Nature Aging thanks Liat Ayalon and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Cite this article

Lozada-Martinez, I., Anaya, JM. Missing centenarians are an international concern. Nat Aging 4, 277–278 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43587-024-00587-2

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