FEELING YOUNGER THAN ACTUAL AGE MEANT LOWER EARLY DEATH RATE FOR OLDER PEOPLE
Turns out, feeling
younger than your actual age might be good for you.
A research letter published online
by JAMA Internal Medicine found that older people who felt
three or more years younger than their chronological age had a lower death rate
compared with those who felt their age or who felt more than one year older
than their actual age.
Self-perceived age can reflect
assessments of health, physical limitation and well-being in later life, and
many older people feel younger than their actual age, according background
information in the report. Authors Isla Rippon, M.Sc., and Andrew Steptoe,
D.Sc., of the University College London, examined the relationship between
self-perceived age and mortality.
The authors used data from a study
on aging and included 6,489 individuals, whose average chronological age was
65.8 years but whose average self-perceived age was 56.8 years. Most of the
adults (69.6 percent) felt three or more years younger than their actual age,
while 25.6 percent had a self-perceived age close to their real age and 4.8
percent felt more than a year older than their chronological age.
Mortality rates during an average
follow-up of 99 months were 14.3 percent in adults who felt younger, 18.5
percent in those who felt about their actual age and 24.6 percent in those
adults who felt older, according to the study results. The relationship between
self-perceived age and cardiovascular death was strong but there was no
association between self-perceived age and cancer death.
"The mechanisms underlying
these associations merit further investigation. Possibilities include a broader
set of health behaviors than we measured (such as maintaining a healthy weight
and adherence to medical advice), and greater resilience, sense of mastery and
will to live among those who feel younger than their age. Self-perceived age
has the potential to change, so interventions may be possible. Individuals who
feel older than their actual age could be targeted with health messages
promoting positive health behaviors and attitudes toward aging," the study
concludes.
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