Want to Live Longer? Maybe You Should Move, New MIT Study Suggests

It’s no secret that life expectancy in some areas of the U.S. is higher than in others. Data from the CDC shows that on average Hawaiians live to 81, while West Virginians only see 74 birthdays. 

But why is that? Is it just that some parts of the country attract wealthier people with better access to health care and quality diets? Or perhaps active, health conscious people tend to cluster together?

If that’s the case, the issue is underlying demographics. Your health outcomes are impacted by your socioeconomic status, race, genes, and habits. Moving from Mississippi to Minnesota won’t change those factors and shouldn’t, therefore, have much impact on how long you can expect to live

Or is it the case that the environment is driving a lot of the differences in life expectancy? If that’s true, a person who moves from a low life expectancy state to a higher life expectancy state should actually live longer without changing the basic facts about who they are. 

A recent study by MIT economist Amy Finkelstein and colleagues set out to figure out how much each of these explanations accounts for the variation in life expectancy across the U.S. The results were just published in American Economic Review and they’re good news for those looking to live a little longer: Moving to the right place, the researchers found, can actually add years to your life. 

Want an extra year of life? Pack up that moving van. 

To figure out the role of what researchers call “health capital” (basically how healthy the population of a particular location happens to be) from the effects of the location itself (maybe the air is cleaner or the hospitals are better, for example), the team examined the Medicare records of 6.3 million seniors aged 65 to 99. Of those six million-plus people, two million moved a significant distance during the study period. 

“The idea is to take two elderly people from a given origin, say, Boston. One moves to low-mortality Minneapolis, one moves to high-mortality Houston. We then compare how long each lives after they move,” says Finkelstein, explaining the study’s basic methodology. 

Crunching numbers in this way, the researchers determined that where you live as an older adult actually does have a significant impact on how long you can expect to live. 

“The results show that when a 65-year-old moves from a metro area in the 10th percentile, in terms of how much those areas enhance longevity, to a metro area the 90th percentile, it increases that person’s life expectancy by 1.1 years. That is a notable boost, given that mean life expectancy for 65-year-olds in the U.S. is 83.3 years,” reports MIT News

The research also showed that, when you zoom in to the details, these effects aren’t even. While native-born residents of some cities, like Santa Fe, have higher-than-average life expectancies, moving to these locations doesn’t seem to have big benefits to longevity. The reverse can also be true. Longtime residents of Charlotte, North Carolina, for example, aren’t especially long-lived. But transplants to the city see an outsize boost in life expectancy. 

Why does moving to Charlotte or Chicago add years to your life? 

So why will you probably live longer if you pack your bags for Chicago or Charlotte? The short answer is the researchers aren’t sure yet, but they’re working on figuring it out. (I’ve covered related research into what sets global hot spots for extreme longevity apart here on Inc.com before.) In the meantime, some suspect that the ease of accessing quality health care or local levels of pollution might play a significant role. 

Whatever explanation this line of research eventually uncovers, the basic lesson is useful to those thinking of relocating today. Where you choose to go actually does matter for your health, so you may want to consider whether your potential new hometown will help add or subtract years from your life. Check out this article for a handy color-coded map to help guide your thinking. 

Note: This article have been indexed to our site. We do not claim ownership or copyright of any of the content above. To see the article at original source Click Here

Related Posts
UK: Cars traveling abroad must be UK, not GB thumbnail

UK: Cars traveling abroad must be UK, not GB

Drogi Użytkowniku! W związku z odwiedzaniem naszych serwisów internetowych możemy przetwarzać Twój adres IP, pliki cookies i podobne dane nt. aktywności lub urządzeń użytkownika. Jeżeli dane te pozwalają zidentyfikować Twoją tożsamość, wówczas będą traktowane dodatkowo jako dane osobowe zgodnie z Rozporządzeniem Parlamentu Europejskiego i Rady 2016/679 (RODO). Administratora tych danych, cele i podstawy przetwarzania oraz…
Read More
Bank Santander mistakenly transferred 130 million pounds to 75 thousand.  different accounts thumbnail

Bank Santander mistakenly transferred 130 million pounds to 75 thousand. different accounts

2021-12-30 17:47publikacja2021-12-30 17:47fot. Isabel Infantes / / ReutersBank Santander przez pomyłkę przelał na 75 tys. różnych kont 130 mln funtów. Pieniądze trafiły także do konkurencyjnych banków i dlatego Santander może mieć problemy z odzyskaniem środków - podała w czwartek telewizja BBC. "Przepraszamy, że z powodu problemu technicznego niektóre płatności od naszych klientów korporacyjnych zostały nieprawidłowo zduplikowane…
Read More
U.S. Transportation Department says 3,700 employees furloughed thumbnail

U.S. Transportation Department says 3,700 employees furloughed

Please try another search Economy10 hours ago (Oct 01, 2021 09:15PM ET) © Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A worker enters a transportation department federal building in Washington October 1, 2013. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque By David Shepardson WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Transportation Department said 3,700 employees had been temporarily furloughed after Congress failed to reauthorize surface transportation programs…
Read More
DGAP-Adhoc: SLM Solutions Group AG: invitation to the holders of the Convertible Bonds 2017/2022 to hold a vote without meeting thumbnail

DGAP-Adhoc: SLM Solutions Group AG: invitation to the holders of the Convertible Bonds 2017/2022 to hold a vote without meeting

DGAP-Ad-hoc: SLM Solutions Group AG / Key word(s): FinancingSLM Solutions Group AG: invitation to the holders of the Convertible Bonds 2017/2022 to hold a vote without meeting 25-Jan-2022 / 21:50 CET/CESTDisclosure of an inside information acc. to Article 17 MAR of the Regulation (EU) No 596/2014, transmitted by DGAP - a service of EQS Group…
Read More
Hot stocks today: start of the reporting season, opportunities at Varta and Manz thumbnail

Hot stocks today: start of the reporting season, opportunities at Varta and Manz

Um Ihnen die Übersicht über die große Anzahl an Nachrichten, die jeden Tag für ein Unternehmen erscheinen, etwas zu erleichtern, haben wir den Nachrichtenfeed in folgende Kategorien aufgeteilt:Relevant: Nachrichten von ausgesuchten Quellen, die sich im Speziellen mit diesem Unternehmen befassenAlle: Alle Nachrichten, die dieses Unternehmen betreffen. Z.B. auch Marktberichte die außerdem auch andere Unternehmen betreffenvom…
Read More
Index Of News
Consider making some contribution to keep us going. We are donation based team who works to bring the best content to the readers. Every donation matters.
Donate Now

Subscription Form

Liking our Index Of News so far? Would you like to subscribe to receive news updates daily?

Total
0
Share