Smoking, divorce and alcohol abuse were the top three shown to have the closest connection to an increased risk of death out of 57 social and behavioural factors examined. The study found the other factors in order of their significance were:Recent financial difficulties. "It's a psychological construct that really has been very deeply connected to disease risk and mortality risk," he said. Medical conditions and biological factors are frequently used to study life expectancy, but the UBC research intentionally excluded those in favour of social, psychological, economic, and behavioural factors. Puterman's colleagues from the University of Pennsylvania, Johns Hopkins University, University of California San Francisco, and Stanford University contributed to the study, which was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on June 22.

Source: CBC News June 28, 2020 01:52 UTC