Preventive interventions may be more beneficial and accurate when looking at life expectancy next to lag time to benefit, according to an article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Lag time to benefit is the time between introducing the preventive intervention and when positive health outcomes are seen.
Some interventions for older adults may have a longer lag time to benefit time than the life expectancy of the patient, so implementing such an intervention would actually cause more harm than good, according to the article, which argues the question “When will it help?” is just as important as “How much will it help?”
Many interventions only look at age as a factor, but the article suggests incorporating life expectancy as an important factor when determining an appropriate preventative intervention.
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