This paper is worth reading. The caricature is not.
Global, regional, and national trends in the morbidity gap and contributing diseases, injuries, and risk factors, 1990–2023: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2023,” The Lancet Public Health, 2026, DOI: 10.1016/S2468-2667(26)00098-8
Also lovely new longitudinal data on centenarian heath across lifespan for a very large Swedish population that demonstrates persistent morbidity advantages compared to very well matched non-centenarians. Fun papers too: DOI: 10.1016/j.eclinm.2025.103396
DOI: 10.1093/geroni/igaf050
DOU: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3003784
And these conditions account are major contributors to the change: depression, anxiety, hearing loss, and low back pain. All are highly subject to diagnostic drift.