The Relationship Between Changes In Height Over 10 Years And Life Expectancy

PURPOSE: It is well known that daily physical activity is effective in extending healthy life expectancy, but it is reported that approximately 40% of elderly people in Japan do not exercise at all. We hypothesized that not reducing height over a long period of time would lead to a more appealing approach for people to exercise.The purpose of this study was to clarify the relationship between changes in height over a 10-year period and life expectancy, as basic data for efforts to use height as an indicator of nursing care prevention. METHODS: The Niigata Study is a long-term longitudinal study that began in 1998 and targeted 600 elderly people who were 70 years old when the study began. Of the 600 people, we selected 201 people whose height was measured every year between the ages of 70 and 80. We compared the change in height from age 70 to 80 by a survival group up to age 90 and a death group. In addition, we had another study, called the Chiba study compared changes in the height of elderly people who attended exercise classes twice a month over 10 years since 2011. RESULTS: In the Niigata study, the decrease in height from age 70 to 80 who survived to age 90 was 0.09 ± 0.10 cm/year in 20 men, and 0.16 ± 0.09 cm/year in 31 women. The decrease in height who died by the age of 90 was 0.09 ± 0.12 cm/year in 88 men and 0.22 ± 0.15 cm/year in 62 women. There was a significant difference in the slope of the regression equation for height change over 10 years between the survival and death groups (P = 0.047) and especially between the survival and death groups for women (P = 0.023). In the Chiba study, height reduction and survival status during the study period up to age 80 were as follows: 8 men in the survival group lost 0.37 ± 0.44 cm/year, 3 men in the death group lost 0.35 ± 0.01 cm/year. 13 women in the survival group had a decrease of 0.40 ± 0.34 cm/year, and 2 women in the death group had a decrease of 0.55 ± 0.03 cm/year. CONCLUSIONS:Although the rate of decrease in height over a 10-year period differed between the Niigata and Chiba studies, in both cases a significant relationship was found between life expectancy and decrease in height for women. This study suggested that changes in height over a 10-year period from age 70 affect life expectancy up to age 90. It is necessary to repeatedly verify the effectiveness of making people conscious of their posture without reducing their height. Chiba Prefectural University of Health Sciences