Healthy lifestyle adds years of life free of disability
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* Julia Haskins

Certain healthy lifestyle factors can increase life expectancy by up to seven years, with most of those years spent free of disability, a recent study finds.

Not smoking or being obese and consuming alcohol only moderately are linked to more disability-free years of life, according to the study published in the July issue of *Health Affairs*.

Researchers analyzed data from the Health and Retirement Study, looking at health outcomes for more than 14,000 people between the ages of 50 and 89 from 1998 to 2012. They found that people who had healthier behaviors increased their life expectancy by seven years and a delay in disability onset of six years. Men who were not obese, never smoke and drank moderately had an average life expectancy of 11 years more than their peers who engaged in high-risk behaviors, while women experienced 12 more healthy years than their peers who were obese, smoked and drank heavily.

Researchers classified disability as limitations in one of five daily activities: walking, getting dressed, bathing, getting in or out of bed and eating. More years free of disability will result in a more active population needing fewer health care services, said co-author Mikko Myrskylä, PhD, executive director of the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Rostock, Germany. A healthy, productive population has far-reaching implications for individuals and greater communities.

“Compared to an unhealthier population, a healthier one will have greater potential to participate in the labor market and perform social roles such as caring for grandchildren,” the study stated.

While each risk factor was linked to early onset of disability, obesity was found to be most strongly associated with disability. However, the study acknowledged that it did not take genetic factors influencing risk behaviors into account.

Myrskylä stressed the importance of policy in reducing risky health behaviors, pointing to public health successes in promoting tobacco cessation and moderate drinking. Addressing obesity has been more challenging, as “much less is known about what works, and at the moment there is no consensus on effective policies,” he told The Nation’s Health.

Adults over age 50 who smoke, drink excessively or are obese should not be discouraged by the findings, as it is still possible to make lifestyle changes for improved health outcomes, Myrskylä said.

“For example, we observed that former smokers had almost as long healthy lifespan as never-smokers,” he said. “Changing behavior has the potential to come with massive health gains.”

For more information, visit [http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/early/2017/07/17/hlthaff.2016.1569](http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/early/2017/07/17/hlthaff.2016.1569).

*   Copyright The Nation’s Health, American Public Health Association