Living to the ripe old age of 90 may depend on your body size — both height and weight — as well as your level of physical activity, and seems to influence a woman’s lifespan more than it does a man’s, according to a new study published Monday in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, a BMJ journal.
The study found women who lived to 90 were, on average, taller and had put on less weight since the age of 20 as compared to women who were shorter and heavier. No such association was seen for men. However, men saw more benefit from physical activity than women.
While the study is observational and cannot establish cause, the findings “provide interesting hints that men’s and women’s health might respond differently to BMI, height and exercise,” said epidemiologist David Carslake, a senior research associate at the University of Bristol in the UK, who was not involved in the study. BMI, which stand for body mass index, is a measurement of body fat based on a calculation of height and weight. Read more