Study Calculates How Many Years Poor Health Will Cost You

A new UK study calculates how smoking, high blood pressure, and other health issues subtract from life expectancy. The researchers found that subjects high on the scale of several risk factors could expect to live ten years less than their compatriots who had low blood pressure, low cholesterol, and didn't smoke.

The impact of individual risk factors was:

• Smoking: -6 years
• High cholesterol: -2 years (top fifth vs. bottom fifth)
• Diabetes and related: -4 years

High blood pressure was also a significant risk factor, subtracting about four years from life expectancy at 50.

(Yes, the impact of individual risk factors adds up to more than the ten years taken from someone who is at risk from them in combination).

Researchers believe that these results understate the actual impact of these risk factors, since many study participants cut back risky behavior after their initial assessment at about age 50.

On the plus side, having a "higher position in the workplace" added over 5 years to life expectancy in middle age.

The researchers were able to use data from the "Whitehall study" of civil servants to follow about 5,000 British men over a forty year period.

--- Source: British Medical Journal and MedPageToday.