The association of childhood intelligence with mortality risk from adolescence to middle age: Findings from the Aberdeen Children of the 1950s cohort study

Leon, David A.; Lawlor, Deborah A; Clark, Heather; Batty, G. David; MacIntyre, Sally

doi:10.1016/j.intell.2008.11.004

Cited by 35 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…In previous studies, the associations were typically somewhat weaker than our findings in men in both male3 6–8 27–29 and mixed25 cohorts. In one of few studies reporting on cause-specific mortality separately for men and women, on a US cohort of 10 000 participants followed to age 70, the association with CVD mortality was comparatively weak—less than HR 1.2—in both genders,26 thus more similar to our findings in women.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 90%

Childhood IQ and mortality during 53 years’ follow-up of Swedish men and women

Wallin

Allebeck

Gustafsson

et al. 2018

J Epidemiol Community Health

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 90%

Childhood IQ and mortality during 53 years’ follow-up of Swedish men and women

Wallin

Allebeck

Gustafsson

et al. 2018

J Epidemiol Community Health

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“…5 7 45 In the Scottish study that followed up on deaths from ages 15 to 57, external causes of death held the strongest association with childhood intelligence relative to cancer, cardiovascular disease, and total mortality. 5 In contrast, we found that external causes of death held the weaker association when compared with mortality from cardiovascular disease. It could be that differences in the composition of specific types of death that are externally caused in a younger versus older age cohort could influence the magnitude of this effect.…”

Section: No Of Peoplecontrasting

confidence: 61%

Childhood intelligence in relation to major causes of death in 68 year follow-up: prospective population study

Calvin

Batty

Der

et al. 2017

BMJ

153

137

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Objectives To examine the association between intelligence measured in childhood and leading causes of death in men and women over the life course. Design Prospective cohort study based on a whole population of participants born in Scotland in 1936 and linked to mortality data across 68 years of follow-up. Setting Scotland. Participants 33 536 men and 32 229 women who were participants in the Scottish Mental Survey of 1947 (SMS1947) and who could be linked to cause of death data up to December 2015. Main outcome measures Cause specific mortality, including from coronary heart disease, stroke, specific cancer types, respiratory disease, digestive disease, external causes, and dementia. Results Childhood intelligence was inversely associated with all major causes of death. The age and sex adjusted hazard ratios (and 95% confidence intervals) per 1 SD (about 15 points) advantage in intelligence test score were strongest for respiratory disease (0.72, 0.70 to 0.74), coronary heart disease (0.75, 0.73 to 0.77), and stroke (0.76, 0.73 to 0.79). Other notable associations (all P<0.001) were observed for deaths from injury (0.81, 0.75 to 0.86), smoking related cancers (0.82, 0.80 to 0.84), digestive disease (0.82, 0.79 to 0.86), and dementia (0.84, 0.78 to 0.90). Weak associations were apparent for suicide (0.87, 0.74 to 1.02) and deaths from cancer not related to smoking (0.96, 0.93 to 1.00), and their confidence intervals included unity. There was a suggestion that childhood intelligence was somewhat more strongly related to coronary heart disease, smoking related cancers, respiratory disease, and dementia in women than men (P value for interactions <0.001, 0.02, <0.001, and 0.02, respectively).Childhood intelligence was related to selected cancer presentations, including lung (0.75, 0.72 to 0.77), stomach (0.77, 0.69 to 0.85), bladder (0.81, 0.71 to 0.91), oesophageal (0.85, 0.78 to 0.94), liver (0.85, 0.74 to 0.97), colorectal (0.89, 0.83 to 0.95), and haematopoietic (0.91, 0.83 to 0.98). Sensitivity analyses on a representative subsample of the cohort observed only small attenuation of the estimated effect of intelligence (by 10-26%) after adjustment for potential confounders, including three indicators of childhood socioeconomic status. In a replication sample from Scotland, in a similar birth year cohort and follow-up period, smoking and adult socioeconomic status partially attenuated (by 16-58%) the association of intelligence with outcome rates. Conclusions In a whole national population year of birth cohort followed over the life course from age 11 to age 79, higher scores on a well validated childhood intelligence test were associated with lower risk of mortality ascribed to coronary heart disease and stroke, cancers related to smoking (particularly lung and stomach), respiratory diseases, digestive diseases, injury, and dementia.

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“…In high income countries, injuries (intentional and unintentional) are the leading cause of child (1–14 years) death 13 14. Individuals with lower IQ have consistently shown a higher risk of mortality and hospitalisations for injuries 3 6–9 15. In this study deaths from injuries showed a stronger evidence of association with paternal IQ, but the association disappeared after controlling for parental SEP.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 47%

“…Increased maternal IQ was related to reduced child mortality in a cohort study of 1294 mothers of the Nicaragua's literacy programme4 and in a sample of 222 Serbian Roma women,5 but these results cannot be directly generalised to affluent populations. Studies from developed countries have observed that external causes, mostly unintentional injuries, make an important contribution to the inverse IQ–mortality association 2 3. Similarly, individuals with lower IQ have consistently shown a higher risk of hospital admissions for injuries 6–9.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%