Days spent on the links may be better for you than you think.Godofredo A. Vásquez/The Associated Press
If you want to live longer, I suggest taking up golf.
A 2008 Swedish study showed that golfers have significantly lower mortality rates than do people in the general population. Lower mortality rates mean there is a lesser probability of dying in a given year.
The study covered 666,750 persons who belonged to the Swedish Golf Federation and were born after 1920.
You might think that the lower mortality rates have to do with golfers having a higher socioeconomic status (SES) than the general population but that isn’t the case. Any bias owing to income level was removed in the study by adjusting the results to take SES into account.
The results were also adjusted for age. After these adjustments were made, mortality rates were still much lower for golfers than non-golfers.
For instance, in the case of golfers with a handicap between 21 and 30, the adjusted mortality rate was just 65 per cent of what it was for the general population. In the case of better players (those with lower handicaps), the mortality rates of golfers were lower still at about 52 per cent of normal mortality rates. A reduction in mortality rates of this magnitude translates into life spans that are about five years longer.
So why do low-handicap golfers have lower mortality rates? Perhaps it’s because whatever golfers are doing to live longer – fitness, fresh air, etc. – the better golfers are doing more of it.
Both male and female golfers were included in the study but this chart focuses just on males since there were significantly more of them than females. The findings for female golfers, however, were very similar.
The authors of the study do caution that the lower mortality rates of golfers might be the result of correlation rather than causation. In other words, it is possible that golfers live longer because they have healthier diets or smoke less. Or maybe they took up golf in the first place because they were healthier than average.
Nevertheless, the study provides a compelling case that golfers or likely anyone else pursuing an outdoor activity that requires physical exertion will live longer than normal.
In the interests of full disclosure, the author of this article is an avid golfer. He would be curious about how other sports, such a tennis, would compare.
Frederick Vettese is former chief actuary of Morneau Shepell and author of the PERC retirement calculator (perc-pro.ca)
