Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-30-2022
Abstract
Longevity is rightly considered one of the greatest achievements of modern society, an achievement understood as the possibility of increasing the healthy part of life and not only its full duration. This study investigated the phenomenon of regional longevity in Cilento by analyzing the association between longevity indicators and some environmental factors, in order to understand if factors such as altitude, climate, UNESCO protected areas, and hinterland can directly or indirectly influence the measure of healthy living and lead to longevity. Demographic and environmental data were collected through the Archives of the Cilento municipalities, the National Institute of Statistics, the Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research, and the Italian National Commission for UNESCO. The Geographically Weighted Regression were used to determine the association between longevity indicators and environmental factors. Correlation analysis between the longevity indicators was investigated in order to have a complete picture of longevity in Cilento. It was discovered that Cilento longevity is mainly found in the central area of the territory and from there, by age groups, it widens towards the south-eastern area. This designated area is part of the hilly area of the Cilento, at an altitude between 400 and 700 m above sea level. The towns of this area are part of the UNESCO heritage and are characterized by a transitional climate between Mediterranean and temperate climate. Moreover, the correlation analysis between the six indicators of longevity has confirmed a linear relationship between the six variables and this indicates that in the years to come there will be the probabilities of a generational turn over between the old, great old, nonagenarians and current centenarians, provided that the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic subsides.
Recommended Citation
Aliberti, Silvana Mirella; De Caro, Francesco; Funk, Richard H W; Schiavo, Luigi; Gonnella, Joseph S.; Boccia, Giovanni; and Capunzo, Mario, "Extreme Longevity: Analysis of the Direct or Indirect Influence of Environmental Factors on Old, Nonagenarians, and Centenarians in Cilento, Italy" (2022). Department of Medicine Faculty Papers. Paper 334.
https://jdc.jefferson.edu/medfp/334
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
PubMed ID
35162611
Language
English
Comments
This article is the author’s final published version in International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, Volume 19, Issue 3, January, 2022 Article number 1589.
The published version is available at https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19031589. Copyright © Aliberti et al.