Fame can take as many years off a musician's life as occasionally smoking cigarettes, a new study has found, after comparing data between famous singers and less well-known artists.
Stardom can shorten lives by 4.6 years, according to research published in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health.
Touring, performing, and rock'n'roll lifestyles have previously been found to lower life expectancy for musicians. However, the new analysis shows a direct link between fame and mortality for the first time.
Researchers from the University Witten Herdecke based in Witten, Germany, examined data of 648 singers, half of whom were dubbed famous and the other half less famous. These included a mix of solo artists, lead and back-up singers in a band.
Famous stars were selected from the top 2,000 Artists of All Time, which includes icons like The Beatles, Bob Dylan, and the Rolling Stones.
Academics matched each famous singer to a less famous one based on gender, nationality, and genre of music. They found that famous singers lived to an average age of 75 while less famous singers lived to 79.
Research indicates that the increased mortality risk linked to fame is comparable to other well-known health risks such as smoking.
Solo artists carry a higher mortality risk, possibly due to the lack of emotional and practical support from band members.
Contributing factors to this trend include loss of privacy, intense public scrutiny, and performance pressure, although the study states these links require further investigation.
The study does note a gender skew, with 83.5% of the examined artists being male.
Previous research found that pop stars who experience fame between the ages of two and 25 are two to three times more likely to face mortality risks compared to the general population.
As popular culture continues to grapple with the impact of fame, the findings underscore the need for targeted health interventions to protect the wellbeing of those in the limelight.
