Five Factors that Predict Longevity

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A longitudinal study of 120,000 nurses and health care professionals identified the top five factors associated with longevity.

Here are the five factors:

1. Never Smoking

2. Body mass index (BMI) 18.5–24.9 kg/m2

3. 30+ minutes/day moderate to vigorous physical activity

4. Moderate alcohol intake

5. High diet quality score (upper 40%)

Adopting all five significantly enhanced longevity. Each factor was additive. See the chart below for the data.

The study concluded: “Adopting a healthy lifestyle could substantially reduce premature mortality and prolong life expectancy in US adults.”

This is a powerful study that identifies specific health parameters that are associated with longevity.

These are simple suggestions but also hard to execute.

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Reference

Background—Americans have a shorter life expectancy compared to almost all other high income countries. We aim to estimate the impact of lifestyle factors on premature mortality and life expectancy in the US population. Methods—Based on the Nurses’ Health Study (1980–2014, n=78,865) and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study (1986–2014, n=44,354), we defined five low-risk lifestyle factors as fulfilling either: never smoking, body mass index (BMI) 18.5–24.9 kg/m2 , 30+ minutes/day moderate to vigorous physical activity, moderate alcohol intake, and a high diet quality score (upper 40%) and estimated hazard ratios (HRs) for the association of total lifestyle score (0–5 scale) with mortality. We used data from the NHANES (2013–2014) to estimate the distribution of the lifestyle score, and the US CDC WONDER database to derive the age-specific death rates of Americans. We applied life table method to estimate life expectancy by levels of the lifestyle score.

During up to 34 years of follow-up, we documented 42,167 deaths. The multivariable adjusted HRs for mortality in adults with five compared with zero low-risk factors were 0.26 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.22–0.31) for all-cause mortality, 0.35 (95% CI: 0.27–0.45) for cancer mortality and 0.18 (95% CI: 0.12–0.26) for CVD mortality. The population-attributable-risk of non-adherence to five low-risk factors was 60.7% (95% CI: 53.6%–66.7%) for all-cause mortality, 51.7% (95% CI: 37.1%–62.9%) for cancer mortality and 71.7% (58.1%–81.0%) for CVD mortality. We estimated that the life expectancy at age 50 was 29.0 years (95% CI: 28.3–29.8) for females and 25.5 years (95% CI: 24.7–26.2) for males who adopted zero low-risk lifestyle factors. In contrast, for those who adopted all five low-risk factors, we projected a life expectancy at age 50 of 43.1 years (95% CI: 41.3–44.9) for females and 37.6 years (95% CI: 35.8–39.4) for males. The projected life expectancy at age 50 was on average 14.0 (95% CI: 11.8–16.2) years longer among female Americans with five low-risk factors as compared to those with zero low-risk factors; for males, the difference was 12.2 (95% CI: 10.1–14.2) years. Conclusion—Adopting a healthy lifestyle could substantially reduce premature mortality and prolong life expectancy in US adults.

Ref: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/labs/pmc/articles/PMC6207481/pdf/nihms949333.pdf