Two articles published in the February 11 issue of the JAMA/Archives of Internal Medicine illustrate the value of maintaining a healthy lifestyle, even as the century mark approaches. Adding merit to both articles is the result of longevity studies conducted on twins, which conclude that about 25% of a person’s expected life span is influenced by genetic factors while the remaining 75% is influenced by healthy lifestyle choices.

One of the studies, the Physician’s Health Study, was started in the early 1980s and involved men, average age of 72, who supplied demographic and health-related information, such as level of exercise, cholesterol count, height, weight, and blood pressure readings. Follow-up questionaires were submitted each year through 2006.

Forty-one percent of the men in the study lived to age 90 or beyond, according to Laurel B. Yates, MD, MPH, leader of the study group at Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston. These oldest participants in the study reported fewer complaints about physical function, self-perceived health, and mental well-being than those that had died at a younger age.

Adverse lifestyle factors such as smoking, limited physical activity, and obesity were cited as factors attributing to poor functional abilities and younger age at the time of death among study participants. The rate of mortality increased when two or more risk factors were combined.

According to researchers in this study, a 70-year-old man today who maintains a healthy lifestyle - no smoking or diabetes, normal weight and blood pressure, and exercise 2 to 4 times each week - has about a 54% chance of reaching his 90th birthday in relatively robust health.


The second study, led by Dellara F. Terry, MD, MPH, of the Boston University School of Medicine and Boston Medical Center, focused on both men and women age 97 and older. Medical conditions common to the elderly and the age of the patient at their onset were identified and patients grouped accordingly. Of note were diabetes, heart disease, stroke, hypertension, osteoporosis, Parkinson’s disease, dementia, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Those who reported any of these conditions beginning before age 85 were classified as survivors and those who developed them after age 85 were identified as delayers. Overall, survivors accounted for 32% of study participants and 68% were delayers.

Researchers cite their study as proof that age-related illness doesn’t necessarily strike with vigor or in clusters at the end of an exceptionally long life. Many study participants who reached the 100-year mark enjoyed lifestyles that were considered independent or requiring only minimal assistance, even in the presence of heart disease or high blood pressure that had been diagnosed before age 85.

According to this study, fewer men than women reach the point of very old age but they seem to do so with a higher degree of function than women of the same age. It has been suggested that women are better socially and physically than men when it comes to living with chronic or disabling medical conditions.

In a separate editorial, William J. Hall, MD, University of Rochester School of Medicine & Dentistry in New York, identifies Americans age 85 and older as the fastest growing group of adults today, presenting unforeseen challenges to our current medical system. He considers the ability of the medical community to adapt to the challenge of caring for this rapidly growing segment of the population as a prime factor in reshaping the nature of medical care across the nation.