The Story of the Human Body by Daniel Lieberman

Author:Daniel Lieberman [Lieberman, Daniel E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 978-0-307-90741-7
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2013-09-30T16:00:00+00:00

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FIGURE 22. Compression of morbidity among graduates of the University of Pennsylvania. The subjects were divided into different risk categories based on BMI, smoking, and exercise habits. Individuals with higher risk factors had more disability at younger ages. Modified from A. J. Vita, et al. (1998). Aging, health risks, and cumulative disability. New England Journal of Medicine 338: 1035–41.

Last but not least, there is some evidence to question or at least temper the assumption that an extension of morbidity necessarily accompanies greater longevity. A seminal test of this hypothesis by James Fries and colleagues analyzed data from 1,741 people who attended the University of Pennsylvania in 1939 and 1940 and were then surveyed repeatedly for more than fifty years.77 Data were collected on three key risk factors (BMI, smoking habits, and how much they exercised), the chronic illnesses from which they suffered, and their degree of disability (quantified on the basis of how well they performed eight basic daily activities: dressing, rising, eating, walking, grooming, reaching, gripping, and performing errands). Those classified as high risk because they were overweight, smoked, and didn’t exercise much had a 50 percent higher mortality rate than those who were low risk. Additionally, as figure 22 illustrates, these high risk individuals had disability scores that were 100 percent greater than those who were low risk and they crossed the threshold of minimal disability approximately seven years younger. In other words, by the time these graduates were in their seventies, just three risk factors (none of which included diet) accounted for a 50 percent greater chance of dying and twice as much disability. The results, by the way, were the same for men and women, and the study design held constant any effects of education and race.

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