Methodists ‘live 7 years longer than others’

LONDON - Methodists tend to live more than seven years longer than the rest of the population, revealed an academic study in Britain.he research found that men belonging to the famously clean-living denomination live to the ripe old age of 83.9, compared with a national average of 77.

As far as the women were concerned, the difference in longevity was even greater with female Methodists dying at 91.1 on average nine years longer than the 82 years enjoyed by most British women.

Last week Stanley Lucas died in Cornwall aged 110, having become not just the oldest male member of the Methodist Church but the oldest man in Europe.

“I’m sure there are many different factors at work for Methodists to attain these numbers,” the Telegraph quoted Dr Richard Vautrey, vice president of the Methodist Conference, as saying.

“But I would guess that our emphasis on caring for our spiritual as well as physical health, avoiding excess, engaging with people in our communities and being good neighbours all help,” he added.

Methodism, an evangelical Christian movement that split from the Church of England at the end of the 18th century, is known for its focus on social justice and for many years was at the forefront of the temperance movement that preached “total abstinence” from alcohol.

The increased life expectancy of its followers, who now number 265,000 in Britain, was calculated by researchers working for British Religion in Numbers, based at the University of Manchester.

The researchers studied family announcements placed in the denomination’s newspaper, the Methodist Recorder, which found that the mean age of death for Methodist men and women in 1973 and 2008 was far higher than that of the general population as recorded by the Office for National Statistics.

The trend was confirmed after studying obituaries for Methodist ministers.

It was found that the mean age of death of 83.4 for men who died in 2009 - again more than six years older than the British average of 77. (ANI)