Children of Centenarians Cognitively Age Better.

Previous research has shown that children of centenarians have markedly reduced rates of heart attack, stroke, cancer, diabetes, and hypertension compared to people born around the same time who do not have a centenarian parent. Now, a new study co-authored by School of Public Health researchers has found that children of centenarians also cognitively age better compared to older adults without familial longevity.

The study was published online in the Journal of Gerontology, Medical Sciences.

“This finding suggests that there are familial factors that may be associated with slower cognitive aging,” says study co-author Paola Sebastiani, professor of biostatistics. “The next step will be to search for these factors that could help people maintain good cognitive function as they age.”

The researchers compared centenarian offspring to a comparison group of their spouses and of people with a parent born in the same birth cohort as the centenarians but who lived to average life expectancy. The researchers administered a brief and validated cognitive function assessment every two years by telephone.

The study used data from the New England Centenarian Study at Boston Medical Center, which has enrolled almost 4,000 centenarians, their siblings, and their children since the study began in 1994.

Ben Sweigart, the study’s statistician and a biostatistics doctoral student, indicated that, at a mean age of 75 years, centenarian offspring were 46 percent less likely to be cognitively impaired after adjusting for age, sex, education, and a history of stroke or diabetes. Additionally, centenarian offspring were 27 percent less likely to become cognitively impaired over the next eight years.

“People with familial longevity not only live longer, but perhaps more importantly, they live more years in good health and with good cognitive function,” says lead author Stacy Andersen, assistant professor of medicine at the School of Medicine. “Studying the genetic and environmental factors shared by centenarians and their family members may help us identify ways to help more people keep their brains healthier as they age.”

The authors note that studying adult children of centenarians helps elucidate how exceptional longevity manifests earlier in life, and that such studies are less likely to be hindered by significant hearing or vision impairment, which are common toward the end of life for centenarians. Besides having a centenarian parent, the study showed that being younger, female, or having more years of education were also associated with reduced risk of cognitive impairment.

Thomas Perls, professor medicine at MED, was senior author on the study.