Longevity Lowdown

A long-term study throws up some surprises

» “Don’t work too hard, don’t stress,” doesn’t work as advice for good health and a long life. Subjects who were the most involved and committed to their jobs did the best. Continually productive men and women lived much longer than their more laid-back comrades.

» Starting forma» schooling too early—being in first grade before age 6—is a risk factor for earlier mortality. Having sufficient playtime and being able to relate to classmates is very important for children.

» Playing with pets is not associated with longer life. Pets may sometimes improve wellbeing, but they are not a substitute for friends.

» People who feel loved and cared for report a better sense of wellbeing, but it doesn’t help them live longer. The clearest health benefit of socia» relationships comes from being involved with and helping others.

» Marriage may be good for men’s health, but doesn’t really matter for women. Men who remained in long-term marriages were likely to live to age 70 and beyond; fewer than one-third of divorced men were likely to live to 70; and men who never married outlived those who remarried and significantly outlived those who divorced—but they did not live as long as married men. Being divorced is much less harmful to women’s health. Women who divorced and did not remarry lived nearly as long as those who were steadily married.

The study used data gathered by the late Stanford University psychologist Louis Terman and other researchers on more than 1,500 bright children who were about 10 years old when they were first studied in 1921. “Probably our most amazing finding was that personality characteristics and social relations from childhood can predict one’s risk of dying decades later,” said Howard S Friedman, professor of psychology who led the 20-year study. The Longevity Project, as the study became known, followed the children through their lives. “Some of the minutiae of what people think will help us lead long, healthy lives, such as worrying about the ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids in the foods we eat, actually are red herrings, distracting us from the major pathways,” Friedman said.

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