Longevity is inherited: Study
POSTED April 6, 2009 - 20:47 | POSTED BY Jaspreet Kaur
Last edited by Harpreet Bhagrath on April 6, 2009 - 20:52
Washington, April 6: A latest study conducted by researchers from the Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) has revealed that longevity runs through family.
For the study purposes, researchers took into account 246 unrelated offspring of centenarians. These included 125 women and 121 men, having an average age of 75. These people were handed over questionnaires so as to determine the levels of neuroticism, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness in their personalities.
The researchers discovered that children of parents who live till 100 years of age possess specific characteristics in their personality that add to longevity.
The study data showed that both the male and female children of centenarians had high levels of extraversion. But they possessed low levels of neuroticism.
Moreover, women scored comparatively more in agreeableness. Both, men and women scored averagely for conscientiousness and openness. Also, men scored fairly normal for agreeableness.
Dr. Thomas Perls, director of the New England Centenarian Study, was quoted as saying, “Interestingly, whereas men and women generally differ substantially in their personality characteristics, the male and female offspring tended to be similar, which speaks to the importance of these traits, irrespective of gender, for health aging and longevity.”
He further said that low neuroticism and higher extraversion definitely prove beneficial for the health of the respondents.
Elaborating this with an example, Dr. Perls, said, “For example, people who are lower in neuroticism are able to manage or regulate stressful situations more effectively than those with higher neuroticism levels. Similarly, high extraversion levels have been associated with establishing friendships and looking after yourself.”
The present study findings point towards the fact that personality is a major factor that must be included in studies that measure genetic longevity.
The current study, which was conducted in partnership with scientists from the National Institute of Aging, has been published online in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.
