A tourists take souvenir snaps nearby as a hooded protester dressed to represent a detainee of the U.S. government demonstrates against torture outside the White House in Washington
A tourists take souvenir snaps nearby as a hooded protester dressed to represent a detainee of the U.S. government demonstrates against torture outside the White House in Washington November 22, 2005. CIA interrogators use "unique" methods to obtain "vital" information from prisoners, but strictly obey laws against torture, CIA Director Porter Goss said in an interview published on Monday. Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican, has proposed legislation outlawing torture or cruel and inhumane treatment of U.S. prisoners and Vice President Dick Cheney has been working in Congress to exempt the CIA from such a formal ban. REUTERS/Jason Reed

As the US gets ready for its next presidential election, a new study suggests that elected heads of government live 2.7 fewer years and experience 23 per cent higher risk of premature death than the losing contestants.

Previous studies on the effect of presidency on the life span of US presidents had shown conflicting results. The latest research is the largest statistical study of its kind. It examined elections held in 17 countries from 1722 to 2015 and came up with its findings, published in the BMJ.

The researchers based their study on the hypothesis that elected leaders, including presidents, prime ministers and chancellors, age faster and die early because of the stress of political life. During the study, the researchers compared 279 elected heads of government with the 261 runners-up whom they defeated and who never served as heads of state.

According to the New York Times, the study’s senior author, Dr. Anupam B. Jena of Harvard Medical School, said his team defined the runners-up as candidates who were never president or prime minister but could have served in Congress or parliament or held other offices.

The authors of the research said the earlier studies were limited in terms of the sample size. The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health. The 17 countries chosen for the analysis were similar to France and Britain, for which reliable life tables exist from the 19th century.

An earlier study, conducted in 2011 by S. Jay Olshansky, an expert in ageing at the University of Illinois at Chicago, had found that most US presidents lived longer than other American men of their age.

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