Study uncovers factors linked to optimal aging

What are these magical factors?

“They found that those who were female, married, physically active and not obese and those who had never smoked, had higher incomes, and who did not have insomnia, heart disease or arthritis, were more likely to maintain excellent health across the study period and less likely to develop disabling cognitive, physical, or emotional problems.”

So, basically, be a woman, get married, be rich, eat well, exercise, don’t smoke, and, oh yeah, don’t be sick to begin with:

“As a baseline, the researchers selected participants who were in excellent health at the start of the approximately three-year period of study. This included the absence of memory problems or chronic disabling pain, freedom from any serious mental illness and absence of physical disabilities that limit daily activities—as well as the presence of adequate social support and high levels of happiness and life satisfaction.”

But wait, is that even the actual journal article’s focus? Umm, it seems to focus on immigrant Canadians, with the conclusion: “Immigrant older adults had a lower prevalence of successful aging than their Canadian-born peers.”

So, my cynical take is:

1. Big study funded 2. Needs to produce some kind of compelling results for the public 3. Actual conclusions aren’t particularly insightful 4. PR produced in attempt to spin the results