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A smoke-free lifestyle, normal blood pressure and healthy cholesterol levels at age 50 are among five key factors which can add more than a decade to life expectancy and improve quality of life in older years, new research shows. 

Women who are free of five key cardiovascular risk factors — smoking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes and being underweight or overweight — live an average of 14.5 years longer than people with all five risk factors, while men gain an additional 11.8 years.

Healthier individuals also tend to develop cardiovascular disease later, with onset occurring an average of 13.3 years later in women and 10.6 years later in men, the research published in the found.

The study, by The Global Cardiovascular Risk Consortium (GCVRC), analysed health data from more than two million people, making it one of the most comprehensive investigations to date on the effect of risk factors on life expectancy.

“The five classical risk factors are responsible for approximately half of all cardiovascular diseases worldwide,” said Professor Christina Magnussen, lead author and Deputy Director of the Department of Cardiology at the University Heart and Vascular Center Hamburg, Germany.

“We wanted to understand how the absence or control of these factors affects life expectancy.”

Study co-author Professor Alta Schutte from the GCVRC Management Group, and Theme Lead of Cardiac Vascular and Metabolic Medicine at �����Ʊ Sydney and , said the large-scale study provided important insights on the impact of key risk factors.  

"This remarkable database, including individual data from over two million adults across 39 countries from six continents, is uniquely placed to answer the question on the difference that specific risk factors make to our survival,” Prof. Schutte said. 

“Cardiovascular diseases remain the leading cause of death worldwide, but more than half of the cases could potentially be prevented by managing these key health risks,” she added.

The study estimated the lifetime risk of cardiovascular disease and death up to 90 years of age, based on the presence or absence of the five risk factors. The risk of disease was significantly lower for those who were healthy at 50, at 13% for women and 21% for men, compared to 24% and 38% respectively for those with all five risk factors. The risk of death before 90 was also significantly lower, at 53% for women and 68% for men, compared to 88% and 94% respectively. 

However, those who make lifestyle changes later in life can still benefit, the study found. People who manage to control their high blood pressure or quit smoking between the ages of 55 and 60 live longer and remain free from cardiovascular disease for longer compared to those who do not make changes. 

“The two risk factors that impacted lifetime the most, were high blood pressure and smoking," said Prof. Schutte.

“Although we have achieved much success with smoking cessation in Australia, we have a long way to go for people to detect and then manage high blood pressure better. The recently established of Australia encourages people to get their blood pressure checked, and if it is high, to make sure it gets treated sooner rather than later."