Dataset Information

Influence of individual and combined healthy behaviours on successful aging.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Increases in life expectancy make it important to remain healthy for as long as possible. Our objective was to examine the extent to which healthy behaviours in midlife, separately and in combination, predict successful aging.

Methods

We used a prospective cohort design involving 5100 men and women aged 42-63 years. Participants were free of cancer, coronary artery disease and stroke when their health behaviours were assessed in 1991-1994 as part of the Whitehall II study. We defined healthy behaviours as never smoking, moderate alcohol consumption, physical activity (? 2.5 h/wk moderate physical activity or ? 1 h/wk vigorous physical activity), and eating fruits and vegetables daily. We defined successful aging, measured over a median 16.3-year follow-up, as good cognitive, physical, respiratory and cardiovascular functioning, in addition to the absence of disability, mental health problems and chronic disease (coronary artery disease, stroke, cancer and diabetes).

Results

At the end of follow-up, 549 participants had died and 953 qualified as aging successfully. Compared with participants who engaged in no healthy behaviours, participants engaging in all 4 healthy behaviours had 3.3 times greater odds of successful aging (95% confidence interval [CI] 2.1-5.1). The association with successful aging was linear, with the odds ratio (OR) per increment of healthy behaviour being 1.3 (95% CI 1.2-1.4; population-attributable risk for 1-4 v. 0 healthy behaviours 47%). When missing data were considered in the analysis, the results were similar to those of our main analysis.

Interpretation

Although individual healthy behaviours are moderately associated with successful aging, their combined impact is substantial. We did not investigate the mechanisms underlying these associations, but we saw clear evidence of the importance of healthy behaviours for successful aging.

SUBMITTER: Sabia S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3519184 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Influence of individual and combined healthy behaviours on successful aging.

Sabia Séverine S Singh-Manoux Archana A Hagger-Johnson Gareth G Cambois Emmanuelle E Brunner Eric J EJ Kivimaki Mika M

CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne 20121022 18

<h4>Background</h4>Increases in life expectancy make it important to remain healthy for as long as possible. Our objective was to examine the extent to which healthy behaviours in midlife, separately and in combination, predict successful aging.<h4>Methods</h4>We used a prospective cohort design involving 5100 men and women aged 42-63 years. Participants were free of cancer, coronary artery disease and stroke when their health behaviours were assessed in 1991-1994 as part of the Whitehall II stu ...[more]

PMID: 23091184

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Project description:Individual hobbies and interests, the ways of spending leisure time develop personal resources influencing health and wellbeing. The literature analysis helped selecting thirteen personal resources that also affect the rate of aging: sports, order, creativity, intellect, handwork, kindness, Humor, spirituality, risk, nature, achievements, optimism, communication. In 1632 people, (840 women and 792 men) personal resources were assessed using a questionnaire developed in-house. Biological age was determined by health indicators. The personal typology was determined by testing functional asymmetry, physique, interaction style, emotionality, profession, marital status, gender, age, and place of residence. The data were processed by correlation and cluster analysis and methods of automatic artificial neural networks (ANN). Personal resources were used as input continuous variables. Personality types were used as input categorical variables. The index of relative biological aging (RBA) was applied as an output continuous variable. We also calculated the correlation between the RBA index and the applied personal resources in different types of personalities. For most female types including investigative occupations, psychomotor emotionality, living in urban areas, asthenic physique, negative correlations were found between most personal resources and the aging index. In men, resources that slow down aging are found only for certain types: enterprising and conventional professions, ambidexter and left-handed, intellectual emotionality, athletic physique. In conclusion, with the help of the trained ANN, we selected personal resources that slow down aging. For women of all types, there are common resources reducing RBA index including nature, intellect, and achievements. For men, ANN was unable to find common resources that slow down aging. However, with an individual selection of resources, a trained neural network gives a favorable forecast of the ability to slow down the biological aging of a particular man by changing his hobbies and interests and ways of spending free time.

Dataset Information

Influence of individual and combined healthy behaviours on successful aging.

Background

Methods

Results

Interpretation

Publications

Influence of individual and combined healthy behaviours on successful aging.

Similar Datasets

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