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CWRU researchers have reported the first definitive evidence
that exercising and not smoking leads to a longer life in adults
over the age of 75.
The findings came from a controlled analysis of the first eight
years of data collected in a National Institute on Aging-supported,
longitudinal study of 1,000 adults over the age of 75, living
in two retirement communities in Clearwater, Fla.
The researchers also found that those retirees who exercised
were not only physically more mobile but mentally healthier with
less depression and more exuberance for life. They also continued
to set goals and found meaning in their lives.
In the study, published in the American Psychosomatic Society's
May/June issue of the journal, Psychosomatic Medicine,
the researchers looked at self-motivated healthy behaviors that
not only included exercising and smoking but also alcohol consumption
and regular medical checkups. Factoring out overall health conditions,
the last two were inconclusive, while exercise and avoidance of
smoking had significant statistical correlations with living longer
for the retirees.
"All levels of exercise proved beneficial. If you did a little
more than someone else, you did better in maintaining physical
functioning," said Eva Kahana, CWRU chair of the department of
sociology and lead author on the study, "Long-Term Impact of Preventative
Proactivity on Quality of Life of the Old-Old." Kahana is also
the Pierce T. and Elizabeth D. Robson Professor of Humanities
and director of the Elderly Care Research Center at CWRU.
Kahana stressed that the retirees were not enrolled in strenuous
exercise programs but worked activities like walking and golfing
into their lifestyles. She also discovered if health concerns
prevented them from one form of exercise, the retirees found alternative
exercises to keep fit. In the first year of the study, the average
age of the retirees was almost 80 years, and by the end of the
eighth year the average age was 88.
The researchers used data gathered from the study, now in its
13th year, to develop a model of proactive behaviors for old-old
adults (over 75 years old) that can prevent or diminish the stress
and frailties of growing older. The model has components in health
promotion, future planning, altruism, marshalling support or help,
changing roles as one grows older, modifications to the environment,
self improvement and use of and access to the Internet to promote
health consumerism as well as using it to tie into the medical
community.
"This is the first step in data analysis that we have been able
to demonstrate the health promotion component of successful aging,"
Kahana said. She also said that "the wheels of science grind slowly
in collecting information," but the message from this study is
that practicing healthy behaviors such as exercising and not smoking
should be carried out throughout one's life. Stopping them diminishes
their benefits, she added.
Kahana provides baby boomers with an "optimistic message" that
if one practices healthy behaviors, it will have a positive impact
on their lives and that it is never to late to try to improve
one's lifestyle.
Other researchers on the project are CWRU sociologists Renee
Lawrence, Kyle Kercher, Eleanor Stoller and Amy Wisniewski; Jordan
Tobin and Kurt Stange from CWRU's School of Medicine; and Boaz
Kahana, professor of psychology at Cleveland State University.
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