Keep Physically Active -
Add Years to Your Life!
From: British Medical Journal via EurekAlert on ENN.com
Healthy living into old age can add up to 6 years to your life.
Keeping physically
active shows the strongest association with survival.
Living a healthy
lifestyle into old age can add five years to women's lives and six years to
men's, finds a study from Sweden published on bmj.com.
The authors say this is the first study that directly provides information about differences in longevity according to several modifiable factors.
It is well known that
lifestyle factors, like being overweight, smoking and heavy drinking, predict
death among elderly people. But is it uncertain whether these associations are
applicable to people aged 75 years or more.
So a team of researchers
based in Sweden measured the differences in survival among adults aged 75 and
older based on modifiable factors such as lifestyle behaviours, leisure
activities, and social networks.
The study involved just
over 1,800 individuals who were followed for 18 years (1987-2005). Data on age,
sex, occupation, education, lifestyle behaviours, social network and leisure
activities were recorded.
During the follow-up
period 92% of participants died. Half of the participants lived longer than 90
years.
Survivors were more
likely to be women, be highly educated, have healthy lifestyle behaviours, have
a better social network, and participate in more leisure activities than
non-survivors.
Read more at EurekAlert.