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Improved lifestyle increases life expectancy in US adults
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ANAHEIM, Calif. — A healthy lifestyle reduced the risk for premature mortality and increased life expectancy, according to data presented at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions.
Yanping Li, MD, PhD , research scientist in the department of nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and colleagues analyzed patient data from the Nurses’ Health Study (n = 78,865) and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study (n = 44,354). The age and sex incident mortality rates were taken from the CDC WONDER data set, and National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data from 2013 to 2014 were used for the prevalence of lifestyle factors.
“In combination of these three different data sets, we estimated lifestyle-specific mortality rate of each age and sex group, and then used the life tables to estimate the life expectancy of the population with each lifestyle factor,” Li said during a presentation.
A risk score was calculated based on the number of lifestyle factors that ranged from 0 to 5. A low-risk lifestyle score was defined as more than 30 minutes per day of moderate or vigorous physical activity, no smoking, the top 40% of the Alternative Healthy Eating Index, moderate alcohol consumption and a BMI between 18.5 kg/m2 and 24.9 kg/m2.
Women aged 50 years who did not adhere to any low-risk lifestyle factors were expected to live until age 79.7 years vs. 94.6 years in women who adhered to all five low-risk factors, with a difference of 14.9 years (95% CI, 12.5-17.2). Men with no healthy lifestyle factor adherence had a life expectancy to an age of 77 years compared with 89.3 years in men with all five low-risk lifestyle factors, with a difference of 12.4 years (95% CI, 10.3-14.4).
“In considering the dose-response relation with each individual factor, the range could be as much as more than 20 years, which shows a large space of potential improvement of the life expectancy of Americans by healthy lifestyles,” Li said.
People aged 50 years who exercised at least 6 hours per week added about 8 years to their life expectancy, according to the presentation. Smoking contributed to a loss of 7 to 12 years of life expectancy, which was dependent on the number of cigarettes a smoker smoked. Each quartile of the Alternative Healthy Eating Index could potentially add 1 year to life expectancy, and heavy alcohol drinking may result in a loss of 3 years, according to the presentation.
“The results implicated that the gap in life expectancy between the United States and other developed countries might be narrowed by improving lifestyle factors,” Li said. – by Darlene Dobkowski
Reference:
Li Y, et al. Robert Levy Memorial Lecture/Lifestyle and Cardiometabolic Health Young Investigator Award. Presented at: American Heart Association Scientific Sessions; Nov. 11-15, 2017; Anaheim, Calif.
Disclosure : Li reports no relevant financial disclosures.