Price Of Being A Famous Performer Might Be Early Death

Being a famous performer or a sports star may lead to an early death, according to a new study.

The study, based on an analysis on obituaries posted in The New York Times, showed that famous performers and sports stars are more likely to die young.

Researchers from University of Queensland and the University of New South Wales analyzed more than 1,000 obituaries posted in The New York Times between 2009 and 2011. They found that people who were famous as performers or sports stars were more likely to die early, at an average age of 77 years, reports BBC.

People who were famous for their political careers or were in business lived on an average for 83 years, while academicians lived for about 82 years, the study found.

Also, the average age of men in the obituaries was found to be about 80 years and for women it was 78 years, which is different from the average age of ordinary men (76 years) and women (81 years) in the U.S. The deviation from average age in women can be attributed to the observation that more women in the obituaries belonged to performance-related fields than in professional careers.

"A one-off retrospective analysis like this can't prove anything, but it raises some interesting questions. First, if it is true that successful performers and sports players tend to enjoy shorter lives, does this imply that fame at younger ages predisposes to poor health behaviours in later life after success has faded?" professor Richard Epstein said in a news release.

"Or that psychological and family pressures favouring unusually high public achievement lead to self-destructive tendencies throughout life? Or that risk-taking personality traits maximise one's chances of success, with the use of cigarettes, alcohol or illicit drugs improving one's performance output in the short term? Any of these hypotheses could be viewed as a health warning to young people aspiring to become stars," explained Epstein.

The study is published in QJM: An International Journal of Medicine.