TAKING regular exercise and keeping the mind active are the two essential ingredients in living to be 100 years of age, centenarians said yesterday.
A report based on interviews with 100 people who have passed their 100th birthday paints a picture of a good-humoured, independently-minded group, sometimes frustrated by difficulty in hearing or seeing but still interested in daily events.
One in four was still living alone and looking after themselves but two-thirds of those interviewed were living in nursing or care homes.
The report was compiled by the Distressed Gentlefolk's Aid Association, renamed Home, Residential and Nursing Care for Life, to mark its own 100th anniversary.
It said there are now more than 8,000 people over the age of 100 in Britain but predicts that on present trends their numbers will grow to 30,000 within 30 years.
By comparison, only 271 people were recorded as receiving telegrams from the Queen on their 100th birthday in 1952, the first year of her reign.
The report says many centenarians live in "delightful" care homes, enjoying the companionship of others and many commented on how helpful staff were to them.
"It has to be reported, however, that there were some examples of extremely poor care being given and some dreadful conditions in which residents were living.
"These included instances of staff paying no attention to residents, congregating together to chat and smoke, oblivious to the needs of residents." The study found that most centenarians had a positive attitude to life with only four per cent expressing "wholly negative" views.
"They did not complain about difficulties they had encountered in the past and they were stoical about their present frailties.
"Several expressed their strong dislike of being frail and dependent but it was not a complaint just an expression of their frustration that, after a long and active life, they find themselves in such a position."
A striking feature among many women centenarians - three-quarters of the total - was a strong streak of independence.
"This is partly demonstrated by their career patterns - the fact that many had experienced fulfilled working lives as a teacher, nurse, midwife, magistrate, shop assistant, photographer or needlewoman. Others had worked long over the age of retirement because they enjoyed working."
The report found no single answer to the secret of long life. Eating good, natural food was frequently mentioned and living a moral life was cited by others. Being a teetotaller or non-smoker were not factors.
Three-quarters drank alcohol - some in the past and some continued to do so - and even more men reported smoking than drank alcohol.
It concludes: "Those who had been, and have remained, intellectually active seemed to have the most positive outlook on life. It provided them with inner resources which could be called on when the frailty of the body took over."
