Men Who Avoid Risk Factors Live Longer

Men who avoid health risk factors in midlife such as smoking, being overweight, excessive drinking and hypertension may live longer, finds a U.S. study.

Dr. Bradley J. Willcox of the Pacific Health Research Institute and Kuakini Medical Center in Honolulu examined potential biological, lifestyle and sociodemographic risk factors present at middle age to identify risk factors for healthy survival.

The study included 5,820 Japanese-American middle-aged men — average age 54 — in the Kuakini Honolulu Heart Program/Honolulu Asia Aging Study. The participants were free of illness and functional impairments and were followed for up to 40 years from 1965 to 2005 to assess overall and exceptional survival. Exceptional survival was defined as survival to a specified age — 75, 80, 85 or 90 years — without incidence of six major chronic diseases and without physical and cognitive impairment.

The diseases were coronary heart disease, stroke, cancer — excluding non-melanoma skin cancer — chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, Parkinson’s disease and treated diabetes.

Of the 5,820 original participants, 2,451 participants survived to age 85 years and 655 participants, or 11 percent, met the criteria for exceptional survival to age 85 years, according to the study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.