The study found those men with cardiovascular risk factors can expect to live over ten years less from the age of 50 compared to men without the health risks.
In the new study, researchers looked at the life expectancy in relation to cardiovascular risk factors recorded in middle age.
Their findings are based on over 19,000 men aged 40-69 years and employed in the civil service in London when they were first examined in 1967-1970 as part of the Whitehall Study.
The records of 18,863 men were traced and 7,044 surviving participants were re-examined in 1997 (around 28 years after their initial examination).
At entry into the study, 42 per cent of the men were current smokers, 39 per cent had high blood pressure and 51 per cent had high cholesterol.
When they were re-examined it was discovered about two thirds had quit smoking and the mean differences in levels of blood pressure and cholesterol had also declined by two thirds over this period.
Despite changes in heart disease risk factors, the presence of three heart disease risk factors recorded on a single occasion in middle-aged men compared to men with no risk factors predicted a three times higher risk of vascular mortality and a two times increased risk of non-vascular mortality, the authors of the study write.
The researchers also found that, compared with men without any risk factors, the presence of all three risk factors at entry was associated with a ten year shorter life expectancy from the age 50 (23.7 compared to 33.3 years).
The study then classified men according to a risk score based on all available risk factors and found that compared to men in the lowest five per cent of the risk score, men in the highest five per cent had a 15 year shorter life expectancy from age 50 (20.2 compared to 35.4 years).
The authors of the report have called for continued public health strategies to lower heart disease risk factors to continue to improve life expectancy.
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