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New Research Suggests Children Born to Young Women Are
More Likely to Live to 100
The chances of living to age 100 and beyond nearly double
for those born to a woman before her 25th birthday, according to new
research by Drs. Leonid Gavrilov and Natalia Gavrilova of the Center on
Aging and National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago.
The findings were made possible by a grant from the Society of Actuaries
(SOA) and presented earlier this spring at the Chicago Actuarial
Association meeting, suggesting that the age when a woman gives birth has a
significant impact on how long her child will live.
This follows a previous SOA–sponsored study, which
indicated first–born children, especially daughters, are three times
more likely to survive to age 100, but the significance of this
birth–order effect was unclear. Researchers have now found that it
is the young age of the mother, as opposed to birth order, that may explain
why first–born children could celebrate their 100th birthday more
often than others.
This finding may have important social implications because
many women postpone their childbearing to later ages because of career
demands," explained Dr. Leonid Gavrilov, researcher at the Center.
Previous research by the SOA and the Center revealed
predictors for exceptional human longevity may include birth order, place
of birth and early–life living conditions.
Using the U.S. Censuses, the Social Security Administration
database, genealogical records and complete family histories, nearly 200
validated centenarians born in the United States from 1890–1893 were
identified. Their complete family history was reconstructed using records
and supplementary data resources in order to identify possible predictors
of exceptional human longevity.
This research helps us better understand the predictors of
longevity and quantify the implications on society and business," said
Thomas Edwalds, fellow of the SOA and president–elect of the Chicago
Actuarial Association. "It illustrates that studies on human longevity
could be modernized and advanced further by using new, computerized data
resources such as genealogies. The PowerPoint Presentation of these new
findings presented at the Chicago Actuarial Association is publicly
available online at: http://longevity-science.org/Chicago-Actuary-2006.ppt
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