Dutch doctors have identified an association between a woman's height and her chances of longevity. It turned out that women taller than 175 centimeters are more likely to live longer, according to the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health. In addition, weight and moderate physical activity affect women's life expectancy. Height and weight do not particularly affect the longevity of men, but physical activity increases their chances of living up to 90 years.
In recent decades, the life expectancy of people around the world has been increasing. It is estimated that by 2060 there will be four times more people over 90 than there are now. But in some countries, like the US and the UK, life expectancy has begun to decline. Scientists call the reason for this a sedentary lifestyle and an increase in the number of obese people. However, few studies have been conducted on the relationship between these factors and longevity. Some of them have already found correlations between decreased life expectancy and very small or very high body mass indices (BMI). In other studies, scientists have found a positive correlation between life expectancy and physical activity. But in all these studies, either only men participated,or people of both sexes and the results were calculated for mixed groups. However, men and women have different physiologies and can lead different lifestyles. Therefore, it would be interesting to see how life expectancy, BMI and physical activity are related in women and men separately.
Physicians Lloyd Brandts and Piet van den Brandt from the University of Maastricht analyzed data on 120,000 men and women who participated in the Netherlands Cohort Study. The study took place from 1986 to 2007; at the time of its inception, the participants were between 55 and 69 years old. Among other things, they all answered questions about their height, weight, weight at age 20 and physical activity not related to their profession (for example, walking or cycling in their free time). The authors of the article analyzed data from only the oldest participants in the study, who at the time of its completion were 90 years old. In total, they studied the data of 3646 men and 4161 women, of which 433 men (16.7 percent) and 994 women (34.4 percent) lived to be 90 years old. To calculate the relationship between BMI,physical activity and longevity, the researchers used Cox regression, which allows predicting the risk of an event.
The authors found an association between longevity and growth in women, and BMI and its increase after 20 years. Women taller than 175 centimeters had more chances of living to 90 years of age (CR 1.31) than women below 160 centimeters. Obese or underweight women were less likely to live to 90 years of age than women of normal weight (CR 0.68 and 0.61, respectively). Those who gained weight after 20 years also had lower chances (CR 0.81). The authors found a relationship between longevity and moderate physical activity in women. Those who walked or rode a bicycle for half an hour to an hour a day were most likely to live up to 90 years of age (CR 1.21). Strangely enough, physical activity for more than one and a half hours a day reduced them (CR 1.0).
As for men, growth, body mass index and its increase after 20 years did not have a significant effect on their longevity. But for them, physical activity was important, and more than that of women. Men who walked or cycled for more than an hour and a half a day were more likely to live to 90 years of age (CR 1.39).
Previously, researchers advised people seeking longevity to work longer. As it turned out, retirement one year late reduced the risk of death from all causes by 11 percent.
Ekaterina Rusakova