Centre for Policy on Ageing



Trends in mortality in older women — findings from the nun study
Author(s)	Steven M Butler, David A Snowdon
Journal title	The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, vol 51B, no 4, July 1996
Pages	pp S201-S208
Keywords	Death rate [statistics] ; Older women ; Ministers of religion ; Cancer ; United States of America.
Annotation	In this study, mortality rates at ages 50 to 84 years in a population of 2,573 Catholic sisters were compared to those in the general population from 1965 to 1989. The nuns had a mortality advantage that increased dramatically over time, and from early to more recent birth cohorts. This coincided with increases in smoking by American women, while over the same period, the nuns had very low rates of mortality from smoking-related diseases. The nuns had high rates of mortality from cancers of the breast and reproductive organs, suggesting an effect of nulliparity manifested in older women.
Accession Number	CPA-970704017 A
Classmark	S5: BD: XR: CK: 7T
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing

...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.