Abstract
AimTo investigate the relationships between healthy lifestyles, longevity genetics, and major chronic noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and death, and to estimate life expectancy and years of life gained at age of 60 years.Subject and methodsA prospective cohort with a total of 317,552 participants without NCDs at recruitment was obtained from UK Biobank. Cox proportional hazards models were used to examine the associations of lifestyle score (HLS), polygenic risk score (PRS) for longevity, and their combinations with incident NCDs or all-cause mortality. Flexible parametric survival models were applied to predict both total and healthy life expectancy and years of life gained.ResultsDuring a median follow-up of 11.80 years, 76,833 incident cases of NCDs (24.2%) and 14,526 deaths (4.6%) occurred. At the age of 60 years, participants with both high HLS and high PRS could expect 3.93 (3.38, 4.47) and 4.72 (4.37, 5.06) years respectively of total and healthy life gained. Quitting smoking showed the largest benefits among various lifestyles. Women could gain greater benefits than men when they had higher scores.ConclusionOur study indicates that engaging in healthier lifestyles (especially a non-smoking lifestyle) brought a much greater level of benefits than PRS. The combinations of higher HLS and PRS could expect longer life expectancy and years of life gained. We must maintain and improve healthy lifestyles to prolong our health.