These six factors can influence how women age during ‘critical decade’, study says

One in five women between the age of 55 and 65 experienced ‘clinically important’ declines in their psychical health. Laura Hampson reports

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A study has listed the factors which can influence whether a woman ages healthily during a “critical decade”.

Researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital in the US looked at which factors can influence how a woman ages between the age of 55 and 65, including weight, level of education and whether the woman was a smoker or not.

Published in the journal JAMA Network Open, the study assessed data from a research project which tracked 1,091 women between 1996 and 2006.

By studying several variables, it looked to establish whether these factors are linked to “clinically important declines in physical health” over the 10-year period.

To find their answer, researchers examine each woman’s “physical component summary score” (PCS) — a measure of someone’s health — when the study participants were 55 and again when they were 65.

The researchers found that one in five women experienced “clinically important declines to their health” during this period.

The factors that appeared to influence how women aged include smoking status; weight; lower levels of education; illnesses such as diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure and osteoarthritis; “clinically significant” depression and whether they had a higher PCS at the beginning of the study.

Study author Daniel Solomon said of the findings: “Age 55 to 65 may be a critical decade. A person’s health and factors during this period may set them on a path for their later adult years.

“The good news is that a large proportion of women at midlife are very stable and will not go on to experience declines. But being able to identify women at higher risk could help lead to interventions targeted to them.”

Solomon added that by identifying these risk factors “we may be able to find interventions that can stave off health declines and help put people on a better health trajectory”.

Additional reporting by PA.