A new study confirms what many have long suspected: Being elected to high office accelerates the aging process and can lead to an early death.
Previous research has suggested that U.S. presidents age more quickly than average citizens. Now a group of Harvard researchers has published a study in this month’s British Medical Journal that attempts to isolate the effect of winning and serving as head of state. Their conclusion: “Election to head of government is associated with a substantial increase in mortality risk compared with candidates in national elections who never served.”
The researchers examined the subsequent lifespans of 279 election winners for president, prime minister and other heads of state in 17 countries (mostly in the West, including the U.S.) going back, in some cases, hundreds of years. They compared the victors to 269 runners-up who didn’t subsequently win an election as head of state. They found that becoming head of state takes an average of 2.7 years off the victor’s life.
This is somewhat surprising because Western heads of state and former heads of state typically receive top-notch healthcare. In the U.S., the Former Presidents Act provides lifetime benefits to former presidents, including lifetime Secret Service protection, health insurance and medical care in military hospitals. Then again, the nearly three years of reduced living may seem low given the stress that Western leaders must experience trying to keep their nations safe in the age of the Islamic State.
Daniel Allott is deputy commentary editor for the Washington Examiner
