If you feel younger than your age, then congratulations! According to a new study, you may live longer than those who feel their age.
Researchers from University College of London led by Andrew Steptoe and Isla Rippon tried to determine whether your perceived age may help you live longer. It turns out that it actually does.
The study-which you can now read in JAMA Internal Medicine since Monday, December 15-spanned for a number of years. More than 6,000 adult men and women with a mean age of 66 years were considered as subjects. The data were obtained from a previous study about aging with a follow-up performed until February 2013.
Upon follow-up, they discovered that 1,030 died from 6,000. However, when broken down, more than 23% of them were those who felt older than their age and 19% for elderly who felt their age. The lowest percentage belonged to subjects who mentioned they felt younger than their actual age. Majority of those who felt young at heart believed they were at least 3 years younger than their actual age.
What's even more interesting is that even if the researchers included factors that might affect the death rate, such as illness, financial status, bad habits such as smoking and alcoholism, and level of physical activity, those who felt older still turned out to die earlier than the younger-feeling individuals by as high as 40%. The likelihood also didn't change significantly when the researchers excluded those who had died a year after the survey since it's possible they might already be experiencing health issues that affected their perception.
The research doesn't really provide the link between death and perceived age. It's possible that those who felt younger consider themselves as more resilient or have a greater will to live longer than the ones who felt very old. The team believes the study needs to be taken further.