Study: Choice Makes a Successful Life

June 1, 2001 -- Aging creeps up on you throughout your life but one day it seems like it suddenly happened. When that time comes, the choices you have made in life become very stark and often seem irreversible.

But a new study says people can make choices to significantly change the quality of their life, even at age 50.

Harvard researchers embarked on an unprecedented study — tracking the physical and mental health of 724 men as they aged over a 60-year period.

They found that if the men figured out a way to be happy, fit and emotionally stable by the age of 50, they lived to be older, happy and fit seniors. The researchers called them "successful."

The study, "Successful Aging" appears in the June journal of the American Psychiatric Association.

Personal Control Key

"We found that it was a matter of personal control," said Kenneth Mukamal, instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School.

"Important factors that are under people's control that they can use to live a longer, happier and physically comfortable life was to not smoke, not abuse alcohol, be in a warm and stable marriage, have mature and adult coping mechanisms, maintain an appropriate weight and get some exercise."

While the researchers suspected that these factors made a difference, the believe control may matter more than even genetic predisposition.

"An active and happy old age may lie not so much in our stars and genes as in ourselves," says lead author George E. Valliant, who teaches psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.

"We often hear we will live as long as our parents and so on," Mukamal said. "But it doesn't feel like it has to be that way."

Longest Continuous Study of Health

The study began in 1940 and is the longest continuous study of mental and physical health in the world. It contrasted the mental and physical health of 268 Harvard sophomores with 456 socially disadvantaged inner-city adolescents. Participants underwent physical and psychological exams and answered questionnaires every two years.

The study found that the health of the inner city men declined more rapidly than did the health of the Harvard men. In fact, the inner city men's health at the age of 65 matched the health of the Harvard graduates at the age of 75.

Education Plays Role

Education, not money and prestige is a major factor in aging successfully, the authors also note. The health of 25 inner-city men who obtained a college education was similar to the Harvard graduates.

"It's not a Harvard education that makes you age successful," Mukamal said. "It's an education."

ABCNews.com's Rose Palazzolo contributed to this report.