Factors associated with healthy aging in septuagenarian and nonagenarian Mexican adults.

Objective: To examine the factors associated with healthy aging in a cohort of Mexican adults after a follow-up of 14 years.

Study Design: Participants were part of a prospective cohort of the Mexican Healthy Aging Study (MHAS), from which we included 5142 individuals aged 63 years or more.

Main Outcome: Healthy aging, defined as reaching age 77 or 90 without major chronic conditions or physical limitations.

Measures: Information on age, education, marital status, smoking, alcohol consumption, physical activity, self-perceived depression, health conditions and history of age-related diseases was collected at baseline and follow-up.

Results: Among the overall cohort, 57.8% experienced healthy survival to age 77 and 42.2% had died before age 77 or were undergoing normal aging. Participants with long-lived parents and who exercised had a lower risk of being non-healthy agers. Being overweight, obese or a smoker increased the risk of being a non-healthy ager. Physically active participants had increased odds of healthy aging at age 77 (OR: 1.17; 95% CI: 1.01-1.46) and at age 90 (OR: 1.5; 95% CI: 1.01-2.24). Depression had a negative relationship with healthy aging at age 90 (OR: 0.66; 95% CI: 0.45- 0.97). Maternal longevity was associated with healthy aging only at age 77 (OR = 1.34; 95% CI: 1.04-1.72).

Conclusions: Our findings support the view that a combination of genetic and behavioral factors is associated with healthy aging. In accordance with findings in Caucasian populations, our data suggest for the first time that there might also be a genetic determinant for healthy ageing in Latin Americans.