The secret of long life - Bí quyết sống lâu

For the best chance of long life be careful, a mite obsessive and stick at it
Katherine Bouton
April 21, 2011



The secret of long life has been much studied.

The secret of long life has been much studied. Photo: Rob Homer

AFTER reading The Longevity Project, I took an unscientific survey of friends and relatives, asking them what personality characteristic they thought was most associated with long life. Several said "optimism", followed by "equanimity", "happiness", "a good marriage", "the ability to handle stress". One offered, jokingly, "good table manners".

In fact, "good table manners" is closest to the correct answer. Cheerfulness, optimism, extroversion and sociability may make life more enjoyable, but they won't necessarily extend it, Howard Friedman and Leslie Martin found in a study that covered eight decades. The key traits are prudence and persistence. "The findings clearly revealed that the best childhood personality predictor of longevity was conscientiousness," they write, "the qualities of a prudent, persistent, well-organised person . . . somewhat obsessive and not at all carefree."

Friedman and Martin have persisted in a 20-year study, following up documents collected over 60 years. In 1990, they realised an invaluable resource existed in California. In 1921, Lewis Terman had chosen 1528 bright San Francisco 11-year-olds for a study of the social predictors of intellectual leadership. Terman interviewed the children, their families and teachers. He studied their play, their parents' marriages and their personalities. His team followed up the participants every five or 10 years. Terman died in 1956, but colleagues continued the regular interviews.
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Friedman and Martin pored over the records, dredged up death certificates and asked Terman's questions of surviving participants. They also conducted a group analysis of similar studies.

The secret of long life has been much studied. The health economist James Smith found the answer was education. Stay in school. This is no doubt true. But his findings don't necessarily conflict with Friedman and Martin's: what keeps people in school is often conscientiousness.

The New England Centenarian Study, on the other hand, found children of centenarians scored in the low range for neuroticism and the high range for extroversion. They were about average in conscientiousness. But the researchers could not study the centenarians themselves, except by self-reporting. And there was no control group. The Friedman/Martin/Terman study is unique in that it followed participants from childhood to death.

How do you pose the same questions over 80 years? One of Terman's original questions was: "How likely are you to upbraid a workman?" Not very relevant now. Employing a linguistic measure called factor analysis the researchers came up with a modern equivalent: "How do you deal with co-workers?"

Many assume biology is the critical factor in longevity. If your parents lived to be 85, you probably will, too. Not so, Friedman says. "Genes constitute about one-third of the factors leading to long life. The other two-thirds have to do with lifestyles and chance."

Friedman and Martin unhesitatingly say the single strongest social predictor of long life is a strong network. Widows outlive widowers; women tend to have stronger social networks. Interestingly, neurotic widowers tended to outlive their less neurotic peers – they were more likely to take care of their health after their wives were gone.

The project is far from finished. Friedman says the most important unanswered question is about work and retirement. "We know it's not good to retire and go to the beach." But nor is it good to stay in a stressful, boring job. "We need to think about negotiating these transitions in a healthy way."

The New York Times