A new study found out that since 1990 the global life expectancy has increased by over six years. However, there's a catch to this, "many just live sicker lives for longer."

The new study looked at major injuries and diseases in 188 countries across the globe, covering the time frame between 1990 and 2013. The findings have revealed that the general health of the population has improved globally.

Advances made in the fight against neonatal, maternal and nutritional illnesses and significant improvements in the fight against infectious disease such as HIV/AIDS and malaria in the past 10 years are some of the explanations behind this improvement in general health at global level.

According to statistics, the health life expectancy has increased by 5.4 years, while the global life expectancy at birth for both women and men has increased by 6.2 years.  

The study published in The Lancet journal on Aug. 26 has come to the conclusion that, with healthy life expectancy not increasing as much, people live more years with disability and illness.

Respiratory infections affecting the airways and the lungs, heart disease, low back and neck pain, stroke and road injuries are the main cause of the health loss worldwide, according to the research analysis.

Study lead author Theo Vos, from the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington, declared that it a great progress was achieved in health levels worldwide, but now the new challenge is to invest in identifying more effective ways to prevent or treat the identified main causes of disability and illnesses.

Vos and his colleagues wrote in their study that health is improving at global level data is showing that progress in health does not necessarily mean fewer demands on health systems. While in most of the countries studied the health levels in the general population were showing positive signs of improvement, in some countries including Belarus, South Africa and Paraguay experiences a decline in healthy life expectancy.

According to the Global Burden of Disease Study from the year 2013, people in Japan have the highest healthy life expectancy at 73.4 years, while people in Lesotho have the lowest, at 42 years.