Study Finds Having Money, Health, Optimism, No
Stress, Moderate Drinking, No Smoking Means Longer Life
Old folks who live longest are happy, healthy, rich
people that don't smoke and control drinking. Was that ever a mystery?
Is this the study to no where?
By
Tucker Sutherland, editor, SeniorJournal.com
October 27, 2008 This one falls in the category
of did you really have to do a study to figure this out? We are
speaking of new research released today with this shocking finding:
elderly people who have a positive outlook, lower stress levels,
moderate alcohol consumption, abstention from tobacco, moderate to
higher income and no chronic health conditions are more likely to thrive
in their old age. As my grandchildren say, Duh?
The news release from
The Gerontological Society of America proclaims this is the first
study of its kind. Maybe these organizations who sponsored this study
should have asked, I wonder why?
These researchers were from Portland State
University, the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research, Oregon
Health & Science University, and Statistics Canada.
They surveyed 2,432 older Canadians about their
quality of life. They then selected the few who maintained excellent
health over an entire decade and named them the thrivers.
"Important predictors of 'thriving' were the
absence of chronic illness, income over $30,000, having never smoked,
and drinking alcohol in moderation," said Mark S. Kaplan, PhD., lead
author and professor of community health at Portland State University.
All Dr. Kaplan had to do was give me a call and I
could have told him that the old folks who live the longest are
generally going to be the happy, healthy, rich guys that never smoked
and control their drinking. Was that ever a mystery?
"We also found that people who had a positive
outlook and lower stress levels were more likely to thrive in old age."
Well, Dr. Kaplan, if people are health and rich, I
can assure you that goes hand-in-hand with having a positive outlook and
less stress.
"Many of these factors can be modified when you are
young or middle-aged," said David Feeny, PhD, co-author and senior
investigator at the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research.
"While these findings may seem like common sense,
now we have evidence about which factors contribute to exceptional
health during retirement years."
At least, Dr. Feeny, kind of gets it. The clue is
when he says, These findings may seem like common sense.
Study participants filled out an extensive health
survey every other year, starting in 1994 and continuing through 2004.
One measure, called the Health Utilities Index,
asked people to rate their abilities in eight categories, including:
1. vision,
2. hearing,
3. speech,
4. ambulation,
5. dexterity,
6. emotion,
7. cognition, and
8. pain.
"Thrivers" were those who rated themselves as
having no or only mild disability in all eight categories on at least
five of the six surveys.
If respondents reported moderate or severe
disability on any of the six surveys, they were classified as "non-thrivers."
Just over half (or 50.8 percent) of the respondents
started out as "thrivers", but by the end of the 10 years, only 8
percent of the respondents were considered "thrivers."
Shocking isnt it. You start out with health old
people and over 10 years of advanced aging most of them go down hill.
At the end of the study period, 47 percent of the
respondents were classified as non-thrivers. Thirty-six percent had died
and 9 percent were institutionalized.
"Even though the study was conducted in Canada, the
findings are certainly applicable to the United States and other
industrialized nations," says Bentson McFarland, MD, PhD, co-author and
professor of psychiatry, public health and preventive medicine at at
Oregon Health & Science University.
Im not sure how she knows that without a study.
But, she adds, "Our population here in the United
States is similar demographically to Canada's, and both health care
systems rely on the same underlying technologies."
Seems to me there are plenty of differences that
will require a separate study in the U.S. Canada is a lot colder and
has a national healthcare system, just to mention a couple of things.
And, you will probably will not be shocked to learn
this study was funded by a grant from the National Institute on Aging,
part of the
U.S. National Institutes of Health. So, the U.S. taxpayers financed
a study to get the answer to a question that any guy on the street could
have answered. And, we did the study in Canada.
Is this the study to no where?
The study was published in the October issue of
The Journal of Gerontology: Medical Sciences.
Background Information
Authors include Kaplan and Nathalie Huguet, PhD,
from Portland State University; Heather Orpana, PhD, from Statistics
Canada and the University of Ottawa; Feeny from the Kaiser Permanente
Center for Health Research and Health Utilities Incorporated; McFarland
from Oregon Health & Science University, and Nancy Ross, PhD, at McGill
University in Canada.
Author David Feeny has a proprietary interest in
Health Utilities Incorporated (HUInc.), Dundas, Ontario, Canada. The HUI
survey instrument used in this study was developed in cooperation with
the Canadian government. Neither Feeny nor HUInc. received any monetary
reimbursement for use of the survey.
The Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences is a
refereed publication of The Gerontological Society of America, the
nation's oldest and largest interdisciplinary organization devoted to
research, education, and practice in the field of aging. The principal
mission of the Society and its 5,000+ members is to advance the
study of aging and disseminate information among scientists, decision
makers, and the general public. GSA's structure also includes a policy
institute, the National Academy on an Aging Society, and an educational
branch, the Association of Gerontology in Higher Education.
Kaiser Permanente's Center for Health Research,
founded in 1964, is a not-for-profit research institution dedicated to
advancing knowledge to improve health. It has research sites in
Portland, OR, Honolulu, HI, and Atlanta, GA.
Keep up with the latest news for senior citizens, baby
boomers
October 27, 2008 This one falls in the category
of did you really have to do a study to figure this out? We are
speaking of new research released today with this shocking finding:
elderly people who have a positive outlook, lower stress levels,
moderate alcohol consumption, abstention from tobacco, moderate to
higher income and no chronic health conditions are more likely to thrive
in their old age. As my grandchildren say, Duh?