Life-Long Sustained Mortality Advantage of Siblings of Centenarians

Although survival to old age is known to have strong environmental and behavioral components, mortality differences between social groups tend to diminish or even disappear at older ages. Hypothesizing that surviving to extreme old age entails a substantial familial predisposition for longevity, we...

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Published inProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS Vol. 99; no. 12; pp. 8442 - 8447
Main Authors Perls, Thomas T., Wilmoth, John, Levenson, Robin, Drinkwater, Maureen, Cohen, Melissa, Bogan, Hazel, Joyce, Erin, Brewster, Stephanie, Kunkel, Louis, Puca, Annibale
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States National Academy of Sciences 11.06.2002
National Acad Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences
Subjects
Adolescent
Adult
Age
Age groups
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Aging
Behavioral genetics
Biological Sciences
Child
Child, Preschool
Cohort Studies
Death
Humans
Infant
Life Expectancy
Life tables
Longevity
Medical genetics
Middle Aged
Mortality
Nuclear Family
Older people
Population
Probabilities
Siblings
United States
United States
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Summary:Although survival to old age is known to have strong environmental and behavioral components, mortality differences between social groups tend to diminish or even disappear at older ages. Hypothesizing that surviving to extreme old age entails a substantial familial predisposition for longevity, we analyzed the pedigrees of 444 centenarian families in the United States. These pedigrees included 2,092 siblings of centenarians, whose survival was compared with 1900 birth cohort survival data from the U.S. Social Security Administration. Siblings of centenarians experienced a mortality advantage throughout their lives relative to the U.S. 1900 cohort. Female siblings had death rates at all ages about one-half the national level; male siblings had a similar advantage at most ages, although diminished somewhat during adolescence and young adulthood. Relative survival probabilities for these siblings increase markedly at older ages, reflecting the cumulative effect of their mortality advantage throughout life. Compared with the U.S. 1900 cohort, male siblings of centenarians were at least 17 times as likely to attain age 100 themselves, while female siblings were at least 8 times as likely.
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Edited by Kenneth W. Wachter, University of California, Berkeley, CA, and approved April 10, 2002
T.T.P. and J.W. contributed equally to this work.
To whom reprint requests should be addressed. E-mail: thomas.perls@bmc.org.
ISSN:0027-8424
1091-6490
DOI:10.1073/pnas.122587599