Creative Life Keeps People Young

Geezer wonders: Do the survey responses of "creative" people suggest that they are more youthful than others because a creative lifestyle keeps them mentally active, or is it that creative people are better at fabricating answers to surveys? Science Daily reports that researchers at the University of Texas are going with the former explanation. Their recent study looked at the answers of 2,592 adults who responded to a 1995 national
telephone survey that was followed up in 1998. The survey addressed
general health and physical functioning, as well as how people spent
their daily time on and whether their work, even if unpaid, gave them a
chance to learn new things or do things they enjoy. The research, which is published in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, concluded that the health advantage of being somewhat above average in creative work
(in the 60th percentile) versus being somewhat below average (in the
40th percentile) is equal to being 6.7 years younger. Read more in Science Daily.