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SALT LAKE CITY — The famous die young, a small study claims.
New research from the Kinghorn Cancer Centre at St. Vincent's Hospital showed that athletes and performers died at an earlier age than philanthropists, academics, and doctors.
Professionals whose jobs garnered them fame died at age 77, creatives died at 78, whereas business people or political workers lived to be 83 and 82, respectively.
Up to 43 percent of the deaths included in the study were attributed to cancer and 31 percent to cardiovascular disease. Others were categorized as "not specified" and "old age."
The researchers came to these conclusions by sifting through 1,000 New York Times obituaries. One was deleted due to duplication. They assigned each person a to "cause of death" and "occupation" categories.
The authors did not look at family health history. By using the NYT, it did produce a Western-biased study.
The authors pointed out that recreational drugs have been associated with creativity and those seeking performance enhancement may be more prone to use psychoactive drugs.
Further, they discussed shorter lifespans have been previously associated with high achievers, non-conformists and outsiders.
"Yet this study also indicates that certain occupational NYT subgroups such as philanthropy, business and medicine are associated with older ages of death, implying that the risks of achievement in some career types may be discounted or even reversed by wealth, recognition or related advantages," the study authors wrote.
