Age at death in cohorts of middle-aged men followed-up until nearly extinction: the European areas of the Seven Countries Study.

The availability of a relatively small number of risk factors measured in middle-aged men allows making rough estimates of AD as related to all-cause mortality during a follow-up of 50 years. AD is also a valuable metrics to describe past health in nearly extinct populations. Key messages We aimed at studying the age at death (AD) of middle-aged men of the European cohorts of the Seven Countries Study, followed-up 45-50 years until nearly extinction, as a function of personal characteristics measured at baseline. Multiple linear regression (MLR) models were computed with AD as dependent variable and 35 personal characteristics or risk factors as independent variables and only five were significant in all individual countries, whereas pooling together all countries, 20 variables were significant as selected by stepwise MLR. Each factor was associated with differences of months or a few years to AD, while their combinations were associated with several years of greater or smaller AD. AD is a valuable metrics to describe past health in nearly extinct populations: it might also be used to communicate years of life gained by preventive measures on modifiable variables.