Thursday, January 21, 2021

57 factors of death

From Predicting mortality from 57 economic, behavioral, social, and psychological factors by Eli Puterman,  Jordan Weiss,  Benjamin A. Hives, Alison Gemmill, Deborah Karasek, Wendy Berry Mendes, and David H. Rehkopf.  An interesting modeling exercise.  From the Abstract:

Behavioral and social scientists have identified many nonbiological predictors of mortality. An important limitation of much of this research, however, is that risk factors are not studied in comparison with one another or from across different fields of research. It therefore remains unclear which factors should be prioritized for interventions and policy to reduce mortality risk. In the current investigation, we compare 57 factors within a multidisciplinary framework. These include (i) adverse socioeconomic and psychosocial experiences during childhood and (ii) socioeconomic conditions, (iii) health behaviors, (iv) social connections, (v) psychological characteristics, and (vi) adverse experiences during adulthood. The current prospective cohort investigation with 13,611 adults from 52 to 104 y of age (mean age 69.3 y) from the nationally representative Health and Retirement Study used weighted traditional (i.e., multivariate Cox regressions) and machine-learning (i.e., lasso, random forest analysis) statistical approaches to identify the leading predictors of mortality over 6 y of follow-up time. We demonstrate that, in addition to the well-established behavioral risk factors of smoking, alcohol abuse, and lack of physical activity, economic (e.g., recent financial difficulties, unemployment history), social (e.g., childhood adversity, divorce history), and psychological (e.g., negative affectivity) factors were also among the strongest predictors of mortality among older American adults. The strength of these predictors should be used to guide future transdisciplinary investigations and intervention studies across the fields of epidemiology, psychology, sociology, economics, and medicine to understand how changes in these factors alter individual mortality risk.

I am reading this to say that among 57 factors presumed to negatively affect mortality, smoking, alcohol abuse, lack of physical activity, economic difficulties, childhood adversity, divorce history, and negative affectivity are among the strongest predictors of mortality among older American adults.

It is the obverse of the coin I focus on, what are the attributes which contribute the most to good live outcomes (health, wealth, wisdom and happiness): Knowledge, Experience, Skills, Values, Behavior, Motivation, and Character/Personality.  

What are the 57 factors?  From their Appendix.  

Age 

Male 

Hispanic

Black

Foreign Born

Childhood Adversity

Lower Father Occupational Status

Paternal and Maternal Education 
 
Father was Unemployed in Childhood 
 
Family Received Financial Help in Childhood 
 
Relocated Homes in Childhood 
 
Child Psychosocial Adversity 
 
Income 2006/2008 
 
Lower Wealth 2006/2008

Education was assessed at entry

Lower Occupational Status 

Recent Financial Difficulties 2006/2008

History of Unemployment

History of Renting 

History of Food Insecurity 

History of Food Stamps

History of Medicaid 

Neighborhood Social Cohesion and Neighborhood Physical Disorder 

Neighborhood Safety 2006/2008 

Alcohol Abuse 2006/2008 

Current Smoker 2006/2008 

History of Smoking 2006/2008

Low/No Moderate Activity 

Low/No Vigorous Activity 2006/2008 

Sleep Problems 2006/2008 

Adulthood Social Connections

History of Divorce 

Never Married 

Positive and Negative Social Interactions 

Personality traits 

Anger-out and Anger-in

Cynical Hostility

Hopelessness 
 
Loneliness 
 
Life Satisfaction

Optimism and Pessimism

Positive Affect and Negative Affect 

Purpose in Life

Religiosity

Perceived Constraints and Perceived Mastery

Trait Anxiety

Adult Psychosocial Adversity 
 
Daily Discrimination 
 
Major Discrimination

Interesting work

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