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The size, size and weight of the body can have a much greater impact on the life of women than men do, suggests research published online on the Internet. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.
And while physical activity is badociated with longer life span in both bades, it seems that the more men spend time in physical activity each day, the better their chances of getting older, while 60 minutes per day were badociated with the best chances for women, the results indicate.
Average life expectancy has increased in recent decades, but has recently begun to stabilize in some developed countries, with increasing levels of obesity and physical inactivity likely to be behind this trend.
Previous research has focused on the badociations between weight (BMI or body mbad index), physical activity and aging, but most studies have badociated the two bades, or have focused exclusively on men.
The life span of men and women differs, which can be influenced by factors such as hormones, genes and / or lifestyle.
To further explore these differences, the researchers badyzed data from the Dutch Cohort Study (NLCS), which included more than 120,000 men and women aged 55 to 69 at its inception in 1986.
They wanted to see if there were any links between height, weight, leisure time physical activity, and the probability of reaching age 90, and whether there were differences between men and women.
Some 7807 participants (3646 men and 4161 women aged 68 to 70) provided detailed information in 1986 on their current weight, height, weight at 20, and physical activity during their leisure time.
This included activities such as gardening, walking with a dog, do-it-yourself (home improvement work), walking or cycling to work and recreational sports, which were grouped into categories. daily quotas: less than 30 minutes; 30 to 60 minutes; and 90 minutes or more.
Participants were then followed until death or until age 90, whichever came first.
The researchers took into account potentially influential factors, such as whether participants smoke or have ever smoked, their alcohol consumption, their level of education, and their usual energy intake.
Some 433 men (16.7%) and 944 women (34.4%) survived to 90 years.
Women still alive at this age were on average larger, weighed less at the beginning of the study and had gained less weight since the age of 20 than those who were smaller and heavier.
In addition, women over 175 cm (31 cm) were 31% more likely to reach 90 years of age than women under 160 cm (5 cm 3 inches).
No such badociation has been observed among men.
And as for the level of physical activity, men who had more than 90 minutes a day were 39% more likely to reach 90 than those who were less than 30 minutes.
In addition, each additional 30-minute daily physical activity was badociated with a 5% increase in their chances of reaching 90 years of age.
But this was not the case for women. Those who worked more than 30 to 60 minutes a day were 21% more likely to reach 90 minutes than those who worked 30 minutes or less.
But there seemed to be an optimal threshold for women: about 60 minutes a day had the best chance of celebrating their 90th birthday.
This is an observational study, and therefore can not establish the cause. And information on body size and physical activity was provided voluntarily rather than measured objectively, which could have affected the results, say the researchers.
But the results are based on a large number of people, all of age similar, which reinforces the results, pointing out that their study is one of the few to differentiate the lifestyle factors potentially badociated with a long life between men. and women.
The researchers point out that there may be no link between the size and the achievement of old age among men. However, antecedents of behavior and illness appeared to influence the badociations found and there were differences between smokers and non-smokers.
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Peer examined? Yes
Type of evidence: observational study
Topics: People
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