# What is the correlation between morbidity or appearance/ability with age & mortality **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 26, 2015, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-correlation-between-morbidity-or-appearance-ability-with-age-mortality/720904 "2015-05-26T20:46:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2015, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-correlation-between-morbidity-or-appearance-ability-with-age-mortality/720904/1 "2015-05-26T20:46:13Z")
It is hard to write a title with the character limit. Does a person who ages well have a longer life expectancy than someone who doesn’t? Meaning, does a person who is still fairly fit in their 60s much more likely to reach their 90s than a person who isn’t too fit in their 60s, or only a bit more likely, or not more likely? With diabetes, the % diagnosed continues to grow up until about age 80, then it declines. I’m assuming part of it is that people who never got diabetes live longer than people who do. [http://www.med.uottawa.ca/sim/data/Images/Diabetes\_prevalence\_by\_age.gif](http://www.med.uottawa.ca/sim/data/Images/Diabetes_prevalence_by_age.gif) Elderly people who can walk 1/4 mile have lower mortality over a 6 year period than those who cannot. > **[Walk a Quarter-Mile or Die](https://www.livescience.com/721-walk-quarter-mile-die.html)** > > People in their 70s who can do it are likely to live longer. And fast times increase their odds of staying alive. But some diseases do not seem like they cause systemic dysfunction. Osteoarthritis or migraines maybe (I’m not sure). Diabetes, hypertension, inflammation, etc. cause systemic damage which would likely affect both morbidity and mortality. But other conditions seem to affect morbidity w/o really affecting mortality. People with MS have the same life expectancy as people w/o it despite higher morbidity. So I guess my question is, if someone ‘ages well’ (they look younger than their age, they are still mobile, ) does that translate into a higher life expectancy or is it not meaningfully related? I know some people are healthy up until they drop dead at 78, and some people live for decades with debilitating conditions. What is the connection? And I’m talking about more than 2-4 years, can you tell who will live to a healthy 90 or 100 based on how they look and act at 50 or 60? ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2015, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-correlation-between-morbidity-or-appearance-ability-with-age-mortality/720904/2 "2015-05-26T21:29:21Z")
Many potentially fatal conditions don’t really manifest themselves outwardly. As the old joke goes, [Richard Burton](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Burton) outlived [Jim Fixx](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Fixx). ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2015, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-correlation-between-morbidity-or-appearance-ability-with-age-mortality/720904/3 "2015-05-26T22:33:05Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > Many potentially fatal conditions don’t really manifest themselves outwardly. As the old joke goes, [Richard Burton](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Burton) outlived [Jim Fixx](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Fixx). I’ve always seen that people who live healthy generally seem to look younger than people who eat terrible, are sedentary, smoke, etc. So I am wondering if that translates into internal health too, does a person whose skin, hair and muscles look good at 55 also likely to have arteries and internal organs that look good at 55? Burton and Fixx both died pretty young. I consider anyone who dies before 70 to die young though. ---
**Author:** ![Donnerwetter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Donnerwetter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Donnerwetter)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2015, 8:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-correlation-between-morbidity-or-appearance-ability-with-age-mortality/720904/4 "2015-05-27T08:35:59Z")
I don’t know if anybody has actually done the research, but I assume that statistically, there must be some kind of correlation between youthful, “healthy” appearance and actual state of health/life expectancy. Of course, there is always anecdotal evidence to the contrary. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2015, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-correlation-between-morbidity-or-appearance-ability-with-age-mortality/720904/5 "2015-05-27T12:29:38Z")
I don’t have a GQ answer for you but what data I know shows more of a fitness and nutrition impact on quality of life than on duration of life. The question I think you are asking though - if those who just naturally seem to age more slowly in terms of looks and function, genetically, also live longer? I’d guess likely so although skin aging may be more impacted by excess sun exposure. ---
**Author:** ![Surreal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@Surreal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surreal)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2015, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-correlation-between-morbidity-or-appearance-ability-with-age-mortality/720904/6 "2015-05-27T14:58:47Z")
[http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/129/9/990.full](http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/129/9/990.full) > [@](#): > > Male pattern baldness, grey hair, and facial wrinkles are all common signs of aging. Presence of ≥1 of these visible age-related signs have been associated with increased risk of ischemic cardiovascular disease in most but not all studies. In contrast, male pattern baldness, grey hair, and facial wrinkles did not associate with death. > [@](#): > > Most studies confirm an association between earlobe crease and risk of cardiovascular disease or death, although some studies argue that this association is mainly attributable to an association between earlobe crease and increasing age. We have recently shown that xanthelasmata and arcus corneae are associated with an increased risk of ischemic heart disease (IHD) and death independent of age and sex—and for xanthelasmata also independent of plasma lipid levels. > [@](#): > > After multifactorial adjustment for well-known cardiovascular risk factors and markers of socioeconomic status (age, sex, total cholesterol, triglycerides, body mass index, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, smoking in packyears, alcohol consumption, physical activity, postmenopausal status, hormonal replacement therapy, education, income, and family history of ischemic vascular disease), only frontoparietal baldness, crown top baldness, earlobe crease, and xanthelasmata remained independently associated with IHD or MI.