Possibly, these people are the ones who are moderate in most things, which is a good recipe for a long happy life. If there’s a correlation with being moderate in food, emotions and life in general then it would make sense
Yours is the most likely explanation... If there are any likely explantions... However other factors could easlily influence the results. I actually believe that few if any meaningful conclusions can reliably be drawn from this particular study. It looks like just another waste of taxpayer dollars to me.
In this case the people enrolled in the study were all over 80 in 2003. Many people who have been “moderate” drinkers do not survive into their 80s and the ones who do may have genetic makeup that give them a stronger propensity for a longer life span. In other words those who were moderate drinkers with more vulnerable genetic dispositions likely weeded themselves out before being eligible to be in the study. Conversely, the good habits of those who exercised my have caused them to exceed the normal limitations of their genetic makeup.