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Blue Zones

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Encyclopedia of Geropsychology

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Synonyms

Longevity Blue Zone (LBZ)

Definition

The term Blue Zone (BZ) refers to a rather small, homogenous geographical area where the population shares the same lifestyle and environment and its exceptional longevity has been scientifically proven. To date, four regions have been identified around the world as possessing the requirements to achieve Blue Zone status. They are located in Okinawa, Sardinia, Costa Rica, and Greece.

Blue Zone or, to be precise, Longevity Blue Zone (LBZ) is a term coined in 2000 by the Belgian demographer Michel Poulain and the Italian physician Gianni Pes in the context of age validation of centenarians in Sardinia, and it was used for the first time in 2004 in an article published in Experimental Gerontology (Poulain et al. 2004). Initially the term was given to a mountainous area located in the central-eastern part of the Mediterranean island of Sardinia, where the two scholars had found a population with exceptional longevity. Although longevous...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Sassari, Viale San Pietro 8, I-07100, Sassari, Sardinia, Italy

    Giovanni Mario Pes

  2. National Institute of Biostructures and Biosystems, University of Sassari, 07100, Sassari, Italy

    Giovanni Mario Pes

  3. IACCHOS Institute of Analysis of Change in Contemporary and Historical Societies, Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain–La–Neuve, Belgium

    Michel Poulain

  4. Estonian Institute for Population Studies, Tallinn University, Tallinn, Estonia

    Michel Poulain

Authors
  1. Giovanni Mario Pes
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  2. Michel Poulain
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Giovanni Mario Pes .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

    Nancy A. Pachana

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Pes, G.M., Poulain, M. (2017). Blue Zones. In: Pachana, N.A. (eds) Encyclopedia of Geropsychology. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-082-7_144

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