Healthy lifestyle and life expectancy free of chronic diseases

Abstract

The average life expectancy in the world has increased substantially in the past few decades. Modifiable lifestyle factors including smoking, physical activity, alcohol intake, body weight, and diet quality affect both total life expectancy and incidence of chronic diseases. Few studies have comprehensively examined how a combination of multiple lifestyle factors may relate to life expectancy free from major diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. A Harvard team examined the effect of healthy lifestyle factors on life expectancy free of chronic diseases, using data from up to 34 years of follow-up in the Nurses’ Health Study (NHS) (1980-2014; n=73 196) and 28 years of follow-up in the Health Professions Follow-up Study (HPFS)(1986-2014;n=38 366). A healthy lifestyle score based on information on five lifestyle factors—diet, smoking, physical activity, alcohol consumption, and body mass index (BMI) was derived. Five low-risk lifestyle factors included: never smoking, body mass index 18.5-24.9, moderate to vigorous physical activity (≥30 minutes/day), moderate alcohol intake (women: 5-15 g/day; men 5-30 g/day), and a higher diet quality score (upper 40%). Women who met all the healthful lifestyle measures had an additional 10.7 years of disease-free life compared with women who met no healthful lifestyle measures. For men, the number was 7.6 additional disease-free years. So it was concluded that a healthier lifestyle was associated with an increased total life expectancy and life expectancy free of cancer, cardiovascular disease, and type 2 diabetes. Findings suggest that the promotion of a healthy lifestyle would help to reduce healthcare burdens. Public policies for improving food and the physical environment conducive to adopting a healthy diet and lifestyle are critical to improving life expectancy, especially life expectancy free of major chronic diseases.

Source: BMJ 2020; 368:l6669 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.l6669