Factors that impact longevity — Biological, physical, and social

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Longevity literally refers to the “length of life” (Merriam-Webster, 2003, p. 726). It encompasses the related concepts of life span, “the maximum number of years and individual can live” and life expectancy, “the number of years that will probably be lived by the average person born in a particular year” (Santrock, 2002, p. 526). Like virtually all other physical and psychological phenomena, longevity is a factor of a combination of heredity and environmental influences — the nature and the nurture.

Some gerontologists have attempted to separate these factors into the distinctive categories of primary aging processes — changes presumed to be genetically programmed (such as brain cell loss) — and secondary aging processes — events and processes that accelerate primary aging, resulting from the lifelong accumulation of insult to one’s body from stress, emotional tension, physical trauma and disease (Selye, 1970; Timiras, 1978; Birren & Schaie, 2001).

Heredity is certainly a key factor influencing an individual’s longevity. In general, an individual’s life expectancy tends to mirror that of his/her close ancestors, within a relatively close range (Hoyer, Roodin, Rybash & Rybash, 2002; Papalia, Camp & Feldman, 1995). Many genetic theorists posit that the rate and progression of biological aging is controlled by…