The findings of the major study by ARC East Midlands researcher Dr Yogini Chudasama are being promoted across the research community.
Regular exercise and a balanced diet can help overcome the negative impact of long-term diseases on life expectancy, according to the study.
The results found that middle-aged people who have multiple long-term conditions (multimorbidity) can expect to live an extra 6-7 years if they adopt a healthy lifestyle.
Dr Chudasama, an Epidemiologist based at the University of Leicester, said: “The findings were surprising, as we found that even though participants had multimorbidity, those adhering to a healthier lifestyle had very similar benefits on their predicted longevity to those without multimorbidity. Reflecting that it’s always worthwhile making healthy lifestyle changes. As a result of this study, we found that it is important to prioritise research on multimorbidity and modifiable lifestyle behaviours as this would positively impact the population’s health and wellbeing.”
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