Paper of the Week: 13th February 2020
This week’s blog is brought to you by: Professor Sir Muir Gray, Founding Director
Full reference and title from the journal:
A Prescription for Longevity in the 21st Century Renewing Purpose, Building and Sustaining Social Engagement, and Embracing a Positive Lifestyle
Pizzo P.A. (2020), JAMA. Published online January 9, 2020. doi:10.1001/jama.2019.21087
Authors conclusion
An assessment of an individual’s sense of purpose, social engagement, and lifestyle choices constitute a triad associated with longevity and should be part of the health assessment. Furthermore, a plan should be developed between the physician and patient about how purpose, community, and wellness will be fostered and enhanced….
While these associations are not new, their benefits for individuals, institutions, and society are important and could foster positive outcomes and better alignment of life span and health span with less financial, medical, and social costs for individuals, communities, and society.
3V bottom line
The first JAMA editorial of 2020 was about positivity, engagement and purpose for longevity, no mention of new drugs or genomics or more medical technology.
3VH – Implications for value
It is fascinating to look at the first editorials of the decade in the top two trade journals, the journals of the British and the American Medical Associations, the BMJ and JAMA. We covered the BMJ’s first editorial on multi morbidity which emphasised the limitations of further subspecialisation and the need for a holistic approach to respond appropriately to the challenge of increased longevity. The first editorial In JAMA, by a leading laboratory scientist, does not predict or promise technological elixirs of life but, as the title emphasises, social and psychological solutions to the challenge not simply of living longer but of living longer better and compressing the period of morbidity and dependency at the end of life
The new decade looks like being not the Roaring Twenties but the Reflective Twenties