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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Intelligence in early adulthood and life span up to 65 years later in male elderly twins | | Author(s) | Tracey Holsinger, Micheal Helms, Brenda Plassman |
| Journal title | Age and Ageing, vol 36, no 3, May 2007 |
| Pages | pp 286-291 |
| Source | http://www.ageing.oupjournals.org |
| Keywords | Older men ; Twins ; Cognitive processes ; Life span ; Longevity ; Longitudinal surveys ; United States of America. |
| Annotation | Previous research has reported that greater intelligence in early life is associated with longer lifespan. Whether this relationship is mediated by genetic factors, some of which could be modified by an individual, is unclear. The authors examined the relationship between intelligence test scores obtained during the 1940s and age at death in a group of 492 male twin pairs, members of the US National Academy of Sciences / National Research Council Twins Registry of WWII veterans born between 1917 and 1927. Self-report information collected in the 1960s was used to examine whether modifiable risk factors for mortality, such as use of tobacco and alcohol. cardiovascular disease, and body mass index (BMI) altered the association between intelligence and longevity. When each twin pair. was treated as an independent observation, higher intelligence test scores were associated with longer life span. Modifiable risk factors are associated with longevity as expected. However, in co-twin analysis in which one twin served as control for the other twin, neither intelligence nor any modifiable risk factors showed a significant association with life span. These findings suggest that genetics and early childhood environment contribute heavily to lifespan, and when one controls for these factors using twins, the effect of intelligence on longevity is diminished. (RH) |
| Accession Number | CPA-070521216 A |
| Classmark | BC: SVR: DA: BG6: BGA: 3J: 7T |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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