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Ageing is a dynamic process, and trends in the health status of older adults aged at least 60 years vary over time because of several factors. We examined reported trends in morbidity and mortality in older adults during the past two decades to identify patterns of ageing across the world. We showed some evidence for compression of morbidity (ie, a reduced amount of time spent in worse health), in four types of studies: 1) of good quality based on assessment criteria scores; 2) those in which a disability-related or impairment-related measure of morbidity was used; 3) longitudinal studies; or 4) studies undertaken in the USA and other high-income countries. Many studies, however, reported contrasting evidence (ie, for an expansion of morbidity), but with different methods, these measures are not directly comparable. Expansion of morbidity was more common when trends in chronic disease prevalence were studied …