Irwin Schatz, M.D.

 

Professor of Medicine and Chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine.

 

Dr. Irwin Schatz had his medical school training in Canada and postgraduate training at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. He moved to Hawaii in 1975 as Chair of the Department of Medicine.  Trained as a cardiologist, Dr. Schatz’s major research interests currently are in the epidemiology of cardiovascular disease, particularly in the elderly.    He is the author of over 100 scientific papers and has been an integral component of Honolulu Heart Program activities for the past 20 years.

 

Mortality in the Elderly: Potential  Risk Factors and their Significance

 

The longitudinal observation of 8,006 Japanese-American men followed since 1965 has generated the following factors that influence survival in this group: serum cholesterol, regular and sustained exercise, degree of frailty (as defined by timed 10-foot walk, hand-grip strength and FEV1), orthostatic hypotension and depression.  These are independent risk factors with no specific relationship to any disease process.

 

            Each was determined to be significant by careful observation of all or selected portions of this large cohort of men, first identified in 1965 on the island of Oahu.  Follow-up has been near complete, with only five individual lost to follow-up.  Extensive data were available generated by five separate complete history and physical examinations over the almost 40 years of observation.  Mortality data were assessed and correlated with the presence or absence of the above-named risk factors.  Speculations about the pathophysiologic mechanisms involved with these risk factors are presented.