Beijing residents can 'expect 58 years in good health'

Beijingers could live on average 58.17 years in full health, about 10 years fewer than the average in most industrialized countries, according to the top public health official in the capital.

Deng Ying, director of the Beijing Center for Disease Prevention and Control, said the first research on healthy life expectancy in Beijing, and probably in China, aims to remind the public to add quality to the quantity of life lived.

Healthy life expectancy is a relative statistic that estimates the average number of years that a person can expect to live in full health, on the basis of the current mortality rates and the prevalence of health conditions in the population.