People whose parents live beyond the age of 100 may themselves develop some age-related health problems later and may live longer, according to a new study.
Researchers in the United States analysed data from three long-running studies in the US and United Kingdom, covering more than 4,000 people. They compared people who had at least one parent who reached 100 with people whose parents had shorter lifespans.
Across the studies, the offspring of centenarians had a 42% lower hazard of death, a 33% lower hazard of cardiovascular disease and a 32% lower hazard of high blood pressure in one of the main combined analyses.
Their mortality was also delayed by about three years on average, while the onset of hypertension was delayed by around five years.
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death globally and accounted for 42.5% of deaths in the World Health Organization European Region in 2019. High blood pressure is its leading risk factor in Europe and contributed to 24% of cardiovascular deaths that year.
The pattern was less clear for other diseases. Stroke risk was lower in two of the three cohorts, while the researchers found no significant difference in cancer risk.
The findings remained broadly similar even when researchers took into account differences in smoking, education and, where data were available, diet, exercise, alcohol use and socioeconomic status.
This suggests lifestyle differences alone may not explain the results.
Centenarians are already known to often develop age-related diseases much later than the general population.
Researchers say studying their children could help scientists investigate the genetic and environmental factors that contribute to a longer period of healthy life.
However, the study cannot determine which factors caused the differences.
Some health and lifestyle information was self-reported, and the participants were predominantly white, which the researchers said limits how widely the findings can be generalised.
