Adherence
Adopting a healthy lifestyle (non-smoking, regular physical activity, healthy diet, moderate alcohol) significantly increases life expectancy in individuals with multimorbidity, with benefits comparable to those without chronic conditions.
If you have multiple chronic conditions, adopting a healthy lifestyle (not smoking, eating 5+ portions of fruit/veg daily, exercising regularly, and drinking moderately) can still significantly extend your life expectancy, adding up to 6-7 years compared to an unhealthy lifestyle. It is never too late to benefit from these changes.
In this analysis of data from the UK Biobank, we found that regardless of the presence of multimorbidity, engaging in a healthier lifestyle was associated with up to 6.3 years longer life for men and 7.6 years for women
Why this rating
Large longitudinal cohort study (n=480,940) with robust statistical adjustment, though observational design limits causal inference.
Source
Healthy lifestyle and life expectancy in people with multimorbidity in the UK Biobank: A longitudinal cohort study
Yogini Chudasama et al. · PLoS Medicine · 2020
DOI 10.1371/journal.pmed.1003332
Related findings · Adherence
- Regular physical activity (at least 150 minutes/week of moderate-intensity) reduces all-cause and cardiovascular mortality by 20-30% and lowers the risk of type 2 diabetes by 25-35%.Strong
- Increasing physical activity from a sedentary lifestyle to an active one in middle adulthood significantly reduces the risk of coronary events compared to remaining sedentary.Strong
- Resistance exercise is the only intervention capable of consistently restoring muscle function and strength in sarcopenia, partially overcoming age-related anabolic resistance.Strong
This is one finding among thousands. Every one is graded and traced to its source, so you can see what the evidence actually supports. Browse the research →