Heart risk factors in middle age can cut 15 years from life
18 September 2009
Middle-aged men who smoke, have high blood pressure and high cholesterol can expect to live 10 to 15 years less than men who don’t have these heart disease risk factors. The finding is the conclusion of research based on data gathered over 40 years from 19,000 male civil servants as part of the Whitehall study. The results are published online today in the British Medical Journal.
Lead author, Dr Robert Clarke of the Clinical Trial Service Unit, part-funded by the Medical Research Council at the University of Oxford, explained the significance of the study findings:
‘‘We’ve shown that men at age 50 who smoke, have high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels can expect to survive to 74 years of age, while those who have none of these risk factors can expect to live until 83.’’
The men were recruited to the Whitehall study between 1967 and 1970 to look at the effects of smoking, blood pressure and cholesterol levels; this was at the peak of a heart disease epidemic in the UK. Participants were between 40 and 69 years old when they joined the study.
Participants completed a questionnaire at entry that covered previous medical history, smoking habits, employment grade and marital status. The initial physical examination recorded height, weight, blood pressure, lung function and blood cholesterol and glucose levels. With funding from the British Heart Foundation, the records of 18,863 men were traced and 7,044 surviving participants were re-examined in 1997, about 28 years after their initial examination.
At entry into the study, 42% of the men were current smokers, 39% had high blood pressure and 51% had high cholesterol. At the re-examination, about two thirds had quit smoking and the differences in levels of blood pressure and cholesterol had also declined by two thirds over this period.
Clarke concluded: ‘‘The results give people another way of looking at heart disease risk factors that can be understood more readily. If you stop smoking or take measures to deal with high blood pressure or body weight, it will translate into increased life expectancy.’’
‘‘It also provides support for existing public health policies. Bans on smoking in public places, efforts to lower saturated fats and salt, combined with medications for those at high risk of cardiovascular disease, when taken together will result in substantial improvements in life expectancy across the population.’’
Original research paper: ‘Life expectancy in relation to cardiovascular risk factors: 38 year follow-up of 19,000 men in the Whitehall study’ by Robert Clarke and colleagues is to be published online in the British Medical Journal www.bmj.com.
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