According to a recent report in The Lancet, men from Iceland have the longest life spans, with only 65 deaths per 1000 for men under the age of 60. Swaziland, on the other hand has the highest rate of mortality for younger men with a staggeringly high 756 in every 1,000 men dying before the age of 60. The recent study was carried out at the University of Seattle and the research team analyzed figures, which showed the rate of deaths in 187 countries from 1970 to 2010 in people aged 15 to 59.

Iceland leads in life expectancy.

Life Insurance Premiums Likely to Differ Depending on Location

The report showed that although the global mortality rate for adults has fallen by 1% a year for the past 40 years, the difference between the mortality rate of those countries with the highest and lowest rates is increasing. Substantial increases in adult mortality have been seen in the Sub Saharan Desert and in the Soviet Republic due to the Aids epidemic and a significant decline in mortality rates in South Asia. One implication of this new information is that people living in South Asia will be able to get lower Life Insurance premiums.

Individuals with Best Chance of Low Life Insurance premiums

The countries with the lowest mortality rates for men are: Iceland, Sweden, Malta, Netherlands, Switzerland, and Australia – in fact Australia’s mortality rate decreased dramatically from 44^th place in 1970 to 6^th in 2010. The UK came in at 19^th for mortality rates, Greece at 22^nd.

The report was bad news for the U.S. however, since mortality rates have increased for both men and women – with men dropping to 45^th place (170 deaths per 1000) and women to 49^th. This puts the U.S. way behind its neighbor, Canada whose mortality puts them in 28^th place – a statistic which some people may find surprising.

According to Dr Christopher Murray, author of the study, there may be good reasons for this “Part of it is that Canada is doing a much better job in tobacco than the United States.” Another factor is that Canada has universal health care and less incidence of so-called “affluence diseases” such as high blood pressure, diabetes, coronary heart disease and obesity, rates of which are increasing more rapidly in North America than in the developing nations.

Women of Cyprus have Best Chance of Longevity

For women the best place to live is Cyprus, followed by South Korea, Japan, Italy and Greece with Spain retaining a good rating (looks as though that Mediterranean diet pays off after all).

The adult mortality rate has big implications for public health globally and is listed as a Millennium Goal, but has been somewhat neglected until now. The latest research will also be useful for life insurance companies when it comes to underwriting policies in different countries.

Sources

Reuters

Huffington Post

Recent research carried out by the Boston Medical Centre, University of Boston, shed new light on the role genetics play in the aging process. The study, entitled the “New England Centenarian Study,” is the largest study of people who have reached the age of 100, and includes data from as far back as 1995.

It was found that 77% of the 1000 participants possessed 150 genetic variants in common, so-called ‘longevity genes’. From this research it may be concluded that the presence of these genes in individuals could possibly indicate an increased potential to live to the age of 100.

Environmental Influences also Play a Significant Part in Lifespan

Simply possessing these genes does not insure you are going to live a long, fruitful life. Environmental factors play a huge role in determining ones life expectancy. Factors such as smoking, becoming overweight, and diet will all play a part in determining how long a person will live – which are the same factors life insurance companies have to take into account when assessing a person’s insurance premiums. It is also worth noting that although it seems 77% of people made it to the age of 100 with genetic factors helping them, 23% did it without.

‘Longevity’ Genes may Suppress Harmful ‘Aging’ Genes

Exactly what part these genes play in increasing lifespan is not entirely known. Previously it was thought some people lived longer because they lacked some of the harmful genes which hasten the onset of aging diseases; this new research tells us that in fact longer-lived people possess all the harmful genes, along with the 150 newly identified ones.

This would seem to indicate that ‘longevity genes’ have an ability to suppress harmful genes, somehow limiting their power to trigger aging illnesses in individuals. It was also discovered that in 90% of the centenarians studied none suffered from any typical age-related illnesses, such as Alzheimer’s or dementia, until after the age of 93.

Implications for Medicine and Life Insurance

This study has big implications for preventative medicine in the area of aging related disease. It is hoped that further research will be extended in order to focus on different nationalities including the Japanese, believed to have the longest life expectancies of people on the planet. This type of research will also be of great interest to life insurance companies – access to this type of new genetic information might give life insurers a more informed way of assessing risk; knowing that potential life insurance customers have genes which make them likely to live to 100 might reduce life insurance premiums for them since a payout on their life insurance might be a long way off.

Better rates on life insurance would be great – but being told you possess ‘longevity genes’ can’t really be topped.