What is ruining us
The risk factors for premature death included psychological and social factors
Elizaveta Ivtushok, N+1
Canadian and American scientists were able to assess the impact of psychological, social, economic and behavioral factors on mortality in old age. Using data on 13,611 people aged 52 to 104 years, scientists found that, in addition to smoking and alcohol abuse, the risk of death within six years after the start of the study was higher, for example, in divorced people, those who experienced financial difficulties, never married and were not satisfied with their lives, scientists write in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (Puterman et al., Predicting mortality from 57 economic, behavioral, social, and psychological factors).
When assessing the risk of premature death, researchers most often focus on those factors that obviously affect physical health: nutrition, physical activity, tobacco and alcohol consumption, as well as, for example, body metabolism. A little less obvious is the relationship of life expectancy with other factors – psychological, economic and social – although it is also studied quite often.
The problem with most studies that focus on the study of third-party, directly unrelated to the state of health, factors for the risk of premature death is that most often they are devoted to the study of one or more pre-selected factors: as, for example, in a study that indicated the link between domestic violence on the risk of diabetes and premature death from all causes. Eli Puterman from the University of British Columbia and his colleagues decided to approach the matter comprehensively: for their study, they selected 57 factors, among which were both classic habits (alcohol and tobacco consumption, as well as physical activity) and social factors (for example, whether a person was divorced, whether he feels lonely, whether he is discriminated against, as well as how he communicates with family and friends) and psychological aspects (traits of the "Big Five", pessimism, anxiety, anger attacks, and others). In addition, the scientists also collected information about the participants' childhood and their parents: for example, family income and how unfavorable the situation in the house was – both economically and psychologically.
A total of 13,611 people aged 52 to 104 years took part in the study (the average age was 69.3 years): all of them filled out the questionnaire once, and scientists followed them, registering mortality, for the next six years. In the analysis, the researchers examined 57 regression models with each factor separately, and took into account nationality, age and education as side variables.
Of all the factors, the scientists identified ten that were significantly associated with mortality during the six years of the study. In addition to smoking, in which the risk increased by 91 percent if the participant smoked, and by 32 percent if he smoked, but quit, scientists also identified divorce (44 percent), alcohol abuse (36 percent), financial difficulties (32 percent), unemployment (32 percent), dissatisfaction with life (31 percent), the absence of marriage (30 percent), bad mood (23 percent) and whether the participant has ever received food on coupons (28 percent). Among other factors that were associated with an increased risk of death over six years, scientists also identified, for example, poor relationships with relatives, anxiety and daily discrimination.
The authors concluded that, in addition to the relatively obvious factors that can increase the risk of death in old age through a direct impact on health, it is also necessary to take into account external factors: social, psychological and economic. The conducted analysis, according to the researchers, will allow to revise the results already obtained in other works, as well as to take into account the discovered factors in the framework of, for example, preventive therapy.
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