If you put “Oscar winners live longer” in Google you will get over 7,000 hits. Here is one from the January 23, 2007 issue of Health and Aging:
Oscar winners live longer: Reported by Susan Aldridge, PhD, medical journalist.
It is Oscar season again and, if you’re a film fan, you’ll be following proceedings with interest. But did you know there is a health benefit to winning an Oscar? Doctors at Harvard Medical School say that a study of actors and actresses shows that winners live, on average, for four years more than losers. And winning directors live longer than non-winners. Source: “Harvard Health Letter” March 2006.
The assertion that Oscar winners live longer was based on an article by Donald Redelmeier, and Sheldon Singh: “Survival in Academy Award-winning actors and actresses”. Annals of Internal medicine, 15 May, 2001, Vol. 134, No. 10, 955-962.
This is the kind of study the media loves to report and medical journals enjoy the publicity they get. . . .
A recent article by James Hanley, Marie-Pierre Sylvestre and Ella Huszti, “Do Oscar winners live longer than less successful peers? A reanalysis of the evidence,” Annals of Internal medicine, 5 September 2006, Vol 145, No. 5, 361-363, claims that the Redelmeier, Singh paper was flawed. They provided a reanalysis of the data showing that it does not support the claim that Oscar winners live longer. . . .
Snell continues with a thorough and entertaining discussion of the issues. I have nothing to add.
haha, somehow i am not surprised. although paul newman is doing quite well :)