"Our study is a picture of what the future of older people could be like - the ideal golden years if they keep heart disease risk factors in check," said the study's lead investigator, Anne B. Newman, M.D., M.P.H., associate professor of geriatric medicine and epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh. "Older healthy people can maintain better-than-average quality of life, with lower rates of physical and cognitive decline, when they refrain from smoking, lower their blood lipids, watch blood pressure and avoid obesity through diet and exercise."
In the multi-site observational study, part of the Cardiovascular Health Study, investigators looked at data on 2,932 participants who qualified at baseline as "healthy," or free of major life-threatening diseases and having normal physical and cognitive function.
Researchers report that after eight years, 48 percent of the participants (1,408) had aged successfully, meaning they had remained free of incident cancer, cardiovascular disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and new and persistent physical disability or cognitive decline.
The likelihood of success was related to the presence of subclinical cardiovascular disease (CVD) disease identifiable only through diagnostic testing at the start of the study. Those participants without subclinical CVD fared better through the eight years. Among those without subclinical CVD at baseline, 56 percent of women and 51 percent of men aged successfully over the course of the study, compared with about 40 percent of those who had subclinical CVD at baseline.
During the eight years, participants with baseline subclinical CVD saw their health decline at a rate similar to t
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Contact: Kathryn Duda
DudaK@upmc.edu
412-624-2607
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
27-Oct-2003