Examining the Aging Paradox Using Happy Life Expectancy and Healthy Life Expectancy among Chinese Older Adults

The “paradox of aging” indicates that although health declines with age, happiness may remain stable or even improve. However, existing research has focused on happiness at discrete time points rather than across the entire remaining lifespan, leaving unclear whether added years are predominantly happy or unhappy. This study addresses this gap by jointly estimating happy life expectancy (HapLE) and healthy life expectancy (HLE) among Chinese older adults. Data were drawn from the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (2008–2018). A multistate interpolated Markov Chain approach was used to estimate HLE, HapLE, and their proportions (HLE