Survival advantage of siblings and spouses of centenarians in 20th-century Quebec

Jarry, Valérie; Gagnon, Alain; Bourbeau, Robert

doi:10.25336/p65c9r

Cited by 14 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 44 publications

(45 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The within-family study demonstrated that being born to a younger mother increases the chances of becoming a centenarian, which is consistent with our previous study on another sample of centenarians (Gavrilov and Gavrilova 2012) as well as the study of Canadian centenarians (Jarry et al 2012b). Being born in the second half of the year is beneficial for longevity as shown by both the within-family (Gavrilov and Gavrilova 2011) and the between-family analyses presented in this paper.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

“…The within-family analysis of the paternal- and maternal-age effects on human longevity demonstrated that a young age of the mother increases the chances of children to reach longevity (see also Gavrilov and Gavrilova 2012; Gavrilova and Gavrilov 2007; Jarry et al 2012b; Myrskylä et al 2013). The finding of a beneficial effect of young maternal age on offspring survival to age 100 in humans is similarly also reported for laboratory animals (Carnes et al 2012; Tarin et al 2005), and hence may have a biological explanation.…”

Section: Centenarians Compared To Their Shorter-lived Siblings: Thementioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Determinants of exceptional human longevity: new ideas and findings

Gavrilov¹,

Gavrilova²

2014

Populationyearbook

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Studies of centenarians are useful in identifying factors leading to long life and avoidance of fatal diseases. In this article we consider several approaches to study effects of early-life and midlife conditions on survival to advanced ages: use of non-biological relatives as controls, the within-family analysis, as well as a sampling of controls from the same population universe as centenarians. These approaches are illustrated using data on American centenarians, their relatives and unrelated shorterlived controls obtained from the online genealogies. The within-family analysis revealed that young maternal age at person's birth is associated with higher chances of exceptional longevity. Comparison of centenarians and their shorter-lived peers (died at age 65 and sampled from the same pool of online genealogies) confirmed that birth timing in the second half of the calendar year predicts survival to age 100. Parental longevity as well as some childhood and midlife characteristics also proved to be significant predictors of exceptional longevity.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Section: Centenarians Compared To Their Shorter-lived Siblings: Thementioning

confidence: 99%

Determinants of exceptional human longevity: new ideas and findings

Gavrilov¹,

Gavrilova²

2014

Populationyearbook

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The importance of family in contributing to health and longevity is well-recognised. Many studies have shown that parents and siblings of centenarians have a survival advantage compared to other members of their birth cohort (Perls et al 1998(Perls et al , 2002Willcox et al 2006;Jarry et al 2012). Yet, of several siblings in a centenarian family, often only one will live to or beyond the age of 100 years.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Maternal age, birth order and other early-life factors: a family-level approach to exploring exceptional survival

Jarry

Gagnon²,

Bourbeau³

2014

Populationyearbook

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The literature provides increasing empirical support for the idea that early-life experiences can greatly shape someone's future health and longevity. Besides shared early-life conditions, within-family variation in maternal age at time of childbirth and birth order have been found to be related to later-life survival. In this study, we examine whether there is a persisting effect of maternal age and birth order on survival to age 104 when both variables are considered and adjusted for season of birth and birth spacing. To address potential confounding by unmeasured family-level factors, we apply a case-sibling control analysis. Using data on 273 centenarians born in Quebec in the 1890-1900 period and their siblings, we show that children born to mothers over age 40 are less likely to reach age 104 while third-and fourthborn children are more likely to make this landmark. When examining the effect of maternal age in combination with the effect of birth order, we obtain higher estimates of both maternal age effects and birth order effects, indicating that the measured influence of one is suppressed when the other is not accounted for. We argue that being born early in the sibling row may provide a biological advantage related in part to the quality of the female reproductive system, but this effect may be counterbalanced by the precariousness of the family as a socio-economic unit at the earliest stages of its cycle. No mediation of these effects is seen when including birth spacing and season of birth. However, we find that birth order differences in longevity are most prominent among siblings born to older mothers and in families where the father was a farmer. We discuss other possible social and historical pathways through which maternal age, birth order and season of birth may operate to mould the offspring's longevity.

show abstract

“…We showed that spouses (F2) who married longevous IPs (F2) did not live significantly longer than spouses (F2) who married a non-longevous IP (F2) in the UPDB while they did in LINKS. Literature is inconclusive about the potential survival advantage of spouses of long-lived persons 5,6,8,39,40 . Pedersen et al (2017) observed a survival advantage in the Long Life Family Study for spouses of long-lived siblings when comparing them to a birth cohort and sex matched control group.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The authors point to assortative mating as a factor explaining the survival advantage for these spouses 5 . A Quebec study, focused on the spouses of 806 centenarians, also reported a survival advantage 39 and a study of Southern Italy demonstrated that male nonagenarians outlived their spouses, whereas this was not the case for female nonagenarians 40 . A recent study showed that the spouses of 944 nonagenarians had no survival advantage but a life-long sustained survival pattern similar to the general population 8 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Longevity defined as top 10% survivors is transmitted as a quantitative genetic trait: results from large three-generation datasets

Berg

Rodríguez-Girondo

Dijk³

et al. 2018

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Survival to extreme ages clusters within families. However, identifying genetic loci conferring longevity and low morbidity in such longevous families is challenging. There is debate concerning the survival percentile that best isolates the genetic component in longevity. Here, we use three-generational mortality data from two large datasets, UPDB (US) and LINKS (Netherlands). We studied 21,046 unselected families containing index persons, their parents, siblings, spouses, and children, comprising 321,687 individuals. Our analyses provide strong evidence that longevity is transmitted as a quantitative genetic trait among survivors up to the top 10% of their birth cohort. We subsequently showed a survival advantage, mounting to 31%, for individuals with top 10% surviving first and second-degree relatives in both databases and across generations, even in the presence of non-longevous parents. To guide future genetic studies, we suggest to base case selection on top 10% survivors of their birth cohort with equally long-lived family members.

show abstract

Survival advantage of siblings and spouses of centenarians in 20th-century Quebec

Abstract: Longevity runs in families, either through genetic or environmental influences. Using Quebec civil registration and historical

Cited by 14 publications

References 44 publications

Determinants of exceptional human longevity: new ideas and findings

Determinants of exceptional human longevity: new ideas and findings

Maternal age, birth order and other early-life factors: a family-level approach to exploring exceptional survival

Longevity defined as top 10% survivors is transmitted as a quantitative genetic trait: results from large three-generation datasets

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About