Living a healthy lifestyle during adulthood could prolong life expectancy at age 50 by 14 years for women and more than 12 years for men, according to new research published April 30 in the American Heart Association’s Circulation journal.
A team of researchers, led by Frank B. Hu, MD, PhD, of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, reviewed how factors like not smoking, a healthy diet, regular exercise, a healthy body weight and moderate alcohol consumption impacted a person’s longevity.
The researchers used data from thousands of patients from the Nurses’ Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study. They also obtained data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys and mortality data for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to determine the impact of lifestyle on premature mortality and life expectancy in the U.S. general population.
A total of 42,167 deaths were recorded over 34 and 27 years of follow-up for women and men, respectively. There were 13,953 deaths due to cancer and another 10,689 were cardiovascular-related diseases.
Following all five of the lifestyle behaviors significantly improved longevity for both men and women. The researchers found those who followed all five habits were 74 percent less likely to die during the follow-up period, 82 percent less likely to die from cardiovascular disease (CVD) and 65 percent less likely to die from cancer.
The researchers found there was a direct association between each individual behavior and a reduced risk of premature death.
Between 1940 and 2014, the life expectancy of Americans at birth rose from 63 years to nearly 79.
“This increase could be the result of a number of factors such as improvements in living standards, improved medical treatment, substantial reduction in smoking, and a modest improvement in diet quality,” wrote Hu and colleagues.
Hu and his colleagues believe Americans’ life expectancy can improve further by decreasing the effects of obesity—a significant risk factor of CVD—and increasing physical activity.
“Quantifying the association between healthy lifestyle factors and longer life expectancy is important not only for individual behavioral changes but also for health communicators and policy makers,” Hu et al. wrote. “It is critical to put prevention first. Prevention, through diet and lifestyle modifications, has enormous benefits in terms of reducing occurrence.”
As a senior news writer for TriMed, Subrata covers cardiology, clinical innovation and healthcare business. She has a master’s degree in communication management and 12 years of experience in journalism and public relations.