Centenarians have been studied in depth in the developing world but less so in developing economies. China, for all its progress, still has many less well developed pockets and one such is Suixi County in Guangdong.
Although poor, Suixi County has a surprisingly large number of old-old folk and Dr. Tao Wang of the Shanghai Jiaotong University (and friends) went along in April 2017 to perform the survey of 100-centenarians that’s the subject of the paper highlighted this week.
One number that jumped out at me was the response to the question about how happy with their lives the sample were? 94% reported being happy with their lot and one must presume they had no reason to be anything but honest about this? There’s something to look forward to!
So, is it yogurt, alcohol, ballroom dancing or fiber that keeping these oldies going? None of the above.
The secret, at least among this sample, is close family ties. Most were distanced from friends and society but kept close relationships with their immediate families. In part because that’s who’s now doing the housework and general chores and so this may prove to be a circumstance peculiar to still-developing economies? In a similar survey in Australia for example the reverse seemed to be true i.e. the oldies kept up with friends but less so with family.
So, stay in touch seems to be the message. With family if you can or friends if you can’t. I don’t think being on either Kim or Khloé’s Twitter feed counts!
You can access the paper in full via the following link Chinese Centenarians.
Happy Sunday.