All stress aside, presidents tend to live longer

Published 4:00 am Thursday, December 22, 2011

There’s no doubt that serving as president of the United States is a stressful job. Some researchers have suggested that the stress leads to premature aging by as much as double the normal aging rate during the years a president is in office.

But a recent analysis by Jay Olshansky at the University of Illinois, Chicago suggests quite the opposite. He found that the life span of the 34 deceased presidents who died of natural causes was 73.3 years. That exceeds the expected rate of 68.1 years, based on average life expectancy minus the time in office to reflect the concept of premature aging. Of those 34 presidents, 23 lived longer than expected, with a mean age of death of 78 years. Olshansky said presidents most likely live longer because most are college educated, wealthy and have access to the best medical care of their era.

— Markian Hawryluk, The Bulletin