BUFFALO, NY — July 30, 2026 — A new #research perspective was #published in Volume 18 of Aging on July 16, 2026, titled “Towards integration of healthspan strategies into the Italian National Health Service.” The article was led by co-first authors Nicola Marino, affiliated with the AEON Foundation and the Women’s Brain Foundation, and Matteo Fiore from the University of Bologna, with both serving as corresponding authors. Rather than presenting new clinical trial results, the authors propose a prevention-focused framework for the staged, evidence-based evaluation and integration of healthspan strategies into Italy’s National Health Service (Servizio Sanitario Nazionale, SSN) to help address the challenges of an aging population. Italy has one of the oldest populations in the world. Although life expectancy has continued to increase, many older adults spend a substantial portion of those additional years living with chronic disease, disability, or reduced physical and cognitive function. The authors describe this mismatch as the lifespan–healthspan divide and argue that healthcare systems should increasingly focus not only on helping people live longer, but also on extending the years they remain healthy and functionally independent. To address this challenge, the authors outline the concept of longevity medicine, describing it as a prevention-oriented, life-course framework rather than a new medical specialty. The approach integrates principles from geroscience, preventive medicine, and personalized healthcare with the goal of identifying age-related risks earlier and promoting healthy aging before chronic diseases and functional limitations accumulate. At the same time, the paper emphasizes that many emerging tools—including biological-age biomarkers, multi-omic profiling, wearable sensor data, and artificial intelligence-based risk stratification—remain exploratory and should not be adopted routinely until they demonstrate clear clinical utility, cost-effectiveness, and meaningful benefits for patients. Full press release - https://www.aging-us.com/news-room/italy-proposes-a-healthspan-focused-framework-for-healthy-aging DOI - https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.206402 Corresponding authors - Nicola Marino - marino@aeonfoundation.eu, and Matteo Fiore - matteo.fiore@auslromagna.it Abstract video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uc1tGVfiHMw Sign up for free Altmetric alerts about this article - https://aging.altmetric.com/details/email_updates?id=10.18632%2Faging.206402 Subscribe for free publication alerts from Aging - https://www.aging-us.com/subscribe-to-toc-alerts Keywords - aging, preventive, longevity, national health system, health span, biomarkers To learn more about the journal, please visit https://www.Aging-US.com and connect with us on social media at: Bluesky - https://bsky.app/profile/aging-us.bsky.social ResearchGate - https://www.researchgate.net/journal/Aging-1945-4589 X - https://twitter.com/AgingJrnl Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/AgingUS/ Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/agingjrnl/ LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/aging/ Reddit - https://www.reddit.com/user/AgingUS/ Pinterest - https://www.pinterest.com/AgingUS/ YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@Aging-US Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/1X4HQQgegjReaf6Mozn6Mc MEDIA@IMPACTJOURNALS.COM
