Promoting Science and Critical Thinking
New study suggests that human longevity could be as long as 150 years. Beyond the media hype, what did this new study actually reveal?
You might have perhaps observed headlines such as these popping up this week … Evening Standard … Religiously observant people live longer than atheists, study finds Independent … Religious people live four years longer than atheists, study finds etc… So what is the story here, what did this study that they refer to actually do, and did … Read more
Various media outlets have been reporting the news that the secret sauce for long life is Alcohol … UK’s Independent – Drinking Small amounts of Alcohol may help you to live over 90, study claims Detroit Free Press – Alcohol and coffee can help you live past 90, study says Chicago Tribune – Study: For those over … Read more
There is apparently a new study that has just been published in which it is being asserted that those that are religious will live a longer life. The study, found within JAMA Internal Medicine, is entitled: Association of Religious Service Attendance With Mortality Among Women and there they claim … Frequent attendance at religious services … Read more
It was conducted by researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University and was published, August 3, 2011 in the online edition of Journal of American Geriatrics Society entitled “Lifestyle Factors of People with Exceptional Longevity“.
There is an interesting study that went up on PubMed a few days ago. the abstract reads …
Objective: Conscientious individuals tend to experience a number of health benefits, not the least of which being greater longevity. However, it remains an open question as to why this link with longevity occurs. The current study tested two possible mediators (physical health and cognitive functioning) of the link between conscientiousness and longevity.
Method: We tested these mediators using a 10-year longitudinal sample (N = 512), a subset of the long-running Health and Retirement Study of aging adults. Measures included an adjective-rating measure of conscientiousness, self-reported health conditions, and three measures of cognitive functioning (word recall, delayed recall, and vocabulary) included in the 1996 wave of the HRS study.
Results: Our results found that conscientiousness significantly predicted greater longevity, even in a model including the two proposed mediator variables, gender, age, and years of education. Moreover, cognitive functioning appears to partially mediate this relationship.
Conclusions: This study replicates previous research showing that conscientious individuals tend to lead longer lives, and provides further insight into why this effect occurs. In addition, it underscores the importance of measurement considerations.
