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The Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences Advance Access originally published online on May 4, 2009
The Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences 2009 64A(7):740-744; doi:10.1093/gerona/glp055
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© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org.

Familial Aggregation of Survival and Late Female Reproduction

Ken R. Smith1,2, Alain Gagnon3,4, Richard M. Cawthon5, Geraldine P. Mineau2,6, Ryan Mazan3 and Bertrand Desjardins7

1 Department of Family and Consumer Studies
2 Huntsman Cancer Institute, University of Utah, Salt Lake City
3 Department of Sociology, Social Science Centre
4 Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada
5 Department of Human Genetics
6 Department of Oncological Sciences, University of Utah, Salt Lake City
7 Département de Démographie, Université de Montréal, Québec, Canada

Address correspondence to Ken R. Smith, PhD, Department of Family and Consumer Studies, University of Utah, 228 AEB, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112. Email: ken.smith{at}fcs.utah.edu


  Abstract

Women giving birth at advanced reproductive ages in natural fertility conditions have been shown to have superior postmenopausal longevity. It is unknown whether improved survival is more likely among relatives of late-fertile women. This study compares survival past age 50 of men with and without a late-fertile sister in two populations: Utahns born in 1800–1869 identified from the Utah Population Database and Québec residents born in 1670–1750 identified from the Programme de recherche en démographie historique. Male survival was greater for those with, rather than without, a sister reproducing after age 45, particularly among men with at least three sisters (Utah rate ratio [RR] = .801, 95% CI = 0.687–0.940; Quebec RR = .786, 95% CI = 0.664–0.931). Survival of wives was unaffected by whether their husbands had a late-fertile sister, suggesting a weak influence of unmeasured socioenvironmental factors. These results support the hypothesis that late female fertility and slow somatic aging may be promoted by the same genetic variants.

Keywords Survival; Longevity; Reproduction; Aging; Natural fertility

Received: October 30, 2008; Accepted: March 17, 2009

Decision Editor: Huber R. Warner, PhD


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