Nearly 80 percent of Americans reach their fifties having smoked cigarettes, been obese, or both. If you are among those that have avoided cigarettes and maintained a healthy body weight, how long will you live, and how healthy will you be? A new study, released by Health Affairs as a Web First, is the first to calculate disability-free and total life expectancy for Americans who have a healthy behavioral profile across several key risky behaviors. The authors analyzed nationwide data from 1998–2012 among Americans ages 50–89 in the Health and Retirement Study and found that the positive impact of having a healthy behavioral profile was large: Compared to the average American, those who never smoked and were not obese lived four or five more years longer—years that were lived free of disability.
People who in addition consumed alcohol moderately lived an additional seven years free of disability over the average American and had a total life expectancy surpassing that of Japan, a country that is often considered to be at the vanguard of life expectancy.
"Our findings indicate the magnitude of health gains that could be achieved if more Americans adopted low-risk behaviors," the authors, Neil Mehta and Mikko Myrskylä, conclude. "What is being achieved by a sizable segment of Americans is potentially achievable by many others. Effective policy interventions targeting health behaviors could help a larger fraction of the US population achieve the health benefits observed in this study."
Mehta is with the University of Michigan; Myrskylä's primary affiliation is with the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Germany.
This study, which was supported by the National Institute on Aging, will also appear in the August issue of Health Affairs.
from Health Affairs BlogHealth Affairs Blog http://ift.tt/2uDNsW5
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