The Finnish National Institute of Health and Social Security was conducting a FINRISK study from 1987 to 2007, which involved 38,549 men and women aged 25 to 74 years. A variety of factors affecting life expectancy as chronic diseases, bad habits, psycho-emotional state, dietary addictions, and others were analyzed during the study. The scientists continued observing the study participants until the end of 2014.
Smoking, which shortens lives of men by 6.6 years, and women by 5.5 years, and diabetes by 6.5 and 5.3 years, respectively are the main factors in reducing life expectancy. These were expected results, although scientists thought that the difference between men and women would be greater, given that, according to statistics, the average life expectancy for women was about 5 years longer than for men.
The stress factor is in third place. Life expectancy in men, who are constantly under stress, is reduced by 2.8, and women - by 2.3 years. A great deal depends on level of a person's stress and his internal comparative judgment. If a person believed that he was experiencing the same stress as all people around him, this did not affect his life expectancy, and when he believed he was experiencing a greater stress, it had a negative effect. The study also proves that lack of exercise reduces life expectancy in men by 2.4 years. Such correlation is not revealed in women, from which the authors make an indirect conclusion that women in general lead a healthier lifestyle.
Consumption of a large number of fruits and vegetables increased the life expectancy of both men and women: fruits - by 1.4 years, vegetables - by 0.9 years.
The effect on life expectancy in the elderly was similar but with lower figures than in younger age groups.
The researchers conducted a comparative analysis of the impact of various options for combining several risk factors, and also evaluated several patient groups that differ in such parameters as body mass index, blood pressure, and cholesterol level. It is also interesting that in this study, the differences in life expectancy of people with different levels of education were almost the same, while earlier studies found large differences.
Source: https://ria.ru/20200312/1568512104.html
Photos are from open sources.
