NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Living to a ripe old age may sound appealing to some, but will the quality of life--including mental and physical health--ensure that those added years are worth it? A new report suggests that if a person is hale and hearty at age 75, they may enjoy more years with sharp wits than with a physically able body.

The investigation revealed that after the age of 75, men's mental abilities were impairment-free another 8.4 years on average, while women enjoyed nearly 10 more years with sharp wits.

However, physical ability did not fair as well. Men who reached the age of 75 had an average of 4.6 years of good physical health while women had about 3.1 years of good physical health, the report indicates.

The researchers considered physical health to include the tasks of daily living, such as a person's ability to transfer themselves from a bed or chair, their overall mobility, as well as their ability to bathe, eat, dress and use the bathroom without the aid of others.

The findings were published in a recent issue of the journal Age and Ageing.

In the study, Dr. Catherine Sauvaget of the Radiation Effects Research Foundation in Hiroshima, Japan, and colleagues in the UK looked at 1,557 British men and women aged 75 years and older.

``The proportion of active life decreased dramatically with age in both sexes: after the age of 87, almost all of remaining life was spent with some activity restriction,'' the authors write. ``The proportion of life free from (mental) impairment, in comparison, decreased slowly in men and remained relatively constant in women,'' they add.

Sauvaget and colleagues note that monitoring the physical and mental abilities in the very old can help determine ''whether we are exchanging longer life for poorer health.''

SOURCE: Age and Ageing 2001;30:509-515.

Reference Source 89

For more information on how to prevent other diseases, use
PreventDisease.com's "Quick Prevention Resources".