Question 16 of 24
Diagnosed chronic conditions or ongoing health gremlins?
The short answer
Living with two or more chronic conditions at once — multimorbidity — is linked to meaningfully shorter life expectancy, but a large UK Biobank study found much of that can be offset. Among people with multimorbidity, those with the healthiest lifestyles lived on average 6.3 years longer (men) and 7.6 years longer (women) than those with the least healthy.
Pick one to continue — the dead don't get to skip homework.
The slow-motion majority
💀 A grim little fact
We picture death as sudden and dramatic. Reality is mostly a slow build: noncommunicable diseases — heart disease, cancer, diabetes, chronic lung disease — cause about 74% of all deaths worldwide, roughly 41 million a year. Cardiovascular disease leads (~19 million), then cancer (~10 million).
NCDs cause ~74% of all deaths — the quiet, patient majority.
🔮 Myth vs. Morty
Myth: "Chronic means slow, so I've basically got forever to deal with it." The comforting lie of a condition that doesn't hurt yet. Many chronic illnesses are highly manageable when kept on a short leash — and quietly catastrophic when ignored. The difference between 'a situation' and 'the situation' is usually just follow-through.
Morty's ledger is 74% chronic conditions. He'd love it to be less.
Sources: WHO Noncommunicable Diseases fact sheet · Entertainment only — not medical advice.
Chronic disease and life expectancy: what the evidence shows
Last reviewed · compiled by the ExpireOnDate editorial team · not medically reviewed
What the research shows
In a UK Biobank cohort of 480,940 adults, among those with multimorbidity the healthiest and least healthy lifestyle groups differed in life expectancy by about 6.3 years in men and 7.6 years in women.
480,940 adults, median age 58 · England, Wales and Scotland · prospective longitudinal cohort study · 2020 · PLOS Medicine
At baseline 19.5% of the cohort — 93,746 of 480,940 participants — had multimorbidity, defined as two or more of a specified set of chronic conditions.
480,940 UK Biobank adults · United Kingdom · prospective longitudinal cohort study · 2020 · PLOS Medicine
Smoking cessation was the single largest lifestyle benefit identified, corresponding to roughly 5 to 6 additional years of life expectancy.
480,940 UK Biobank adults · United Kingdom · prospective longitudinal cohort study · 2020 · PLOS Medicine
In absolute terms
In this cohort of over 480,000 adults, about one in five (19.5%) already had two or more chronic conditions.
What it does not show
UK Biobank participants are documented to be healthier, wealthier and less ethnically diverse than the UK population at large — the 'healthy volunteer' effect — so the absolute figures may not transfer. The study is observational, so early undiagnosed disease shaping lifestyle cannot be fully excluded.
Every figure on this page describes a population, not a person. Associations measured across thousands of people cannot tell any individual how long they will live, and nothing here is medical advice. If something on this page concerns you, talk to a doctor rather than a comedy website.
References
- Healthy lifestyle and life expectancy in people with multimorbidity in the UK Biobank: A longitudinal cohort study. PLOS Medicine (2020-09-22). primary source; accessed 2026-08-15.
Spotted an error or a better source? Tell us — corrections are logged and the review date updated.