100-Year Olds' Secret To Longevity

The key to long life is a vivid interest in the world around you, a survey of 100-year-olds suggests.

That means people born when Teddy Roosevelt was president are watching music
videos and even listening to iPods, according to the poll from Evercare, a division of UnitedHealth Group focused on the health care needs of Americans aged 50 and older.

"We are finding older Americans are staying engaged and staying on top of what is going on in the world," Sherri Snelling, director of caregiving services at Evercare, tells WebMD.

Evercare's second annual telephone poll of 100 people aged 99 and older isn't a scientific study — it's a snapshot of the attitudes of American 100-year-olds. Eighty-seven percent of survey respondents were white; 70 percent still lived at home; 95 percent were 100 or older; and 70 percent were women.

The point of the poll, Snelling says, is simply to look at what successful aging looks like.

"When we think about the different aspects of staying involved in the world around us, these nuggets of information are helpful to us," she says.
Some of those nuggets: