Offspring of parents with exceptional longevity (OPEL) manifest lower prevalence of
cardiovascular disease (CVD), but the role of lifestyle factors in this unique cohort
is not known. Our study tested whether OPEL have lesser prevalence of CVD independent
of lifestyle factors. Prevalence of CVD and CVD risk factors was assessed in a population
of community-dwelling Ashkenazi Jewish adults aged 65 to 94 years. Participants included
OPEL (n = 395), defined as having at least 1 parent living past the age of 95 years,
and offspring of parents with usual survival (OPUS, n = 450), defined as having neither
parent survive to 95 years. Medical and lifestyle information was obtained using standardized
questionnaires. Socioeconomic status was defined based on validated classification
scores. Dietary intake was evaluated with the Block Brief Food Frequency Questionnaire
(2000) in a subgroup of the study population (n = 234). Our study found no significant
differences in the prevalence of obesity, smoking, alcohol use, physical activity,
social strata scores, and dietary intake between the 2 groups. After adjustment for
age and gender, the OPEL demonstrated 29% lower odds of having hypertension (95% confidence
interval [CI] 0.53 to 0.95), 65% lower odds of having had a stroke (95% CI 0.14 to
0.88), and 35% lower odds of having CVD (95% CI 0.43 to 0.98), compared with OPUS.
In conclusion, exceptional parental longevity is associated with lower prevalence
of CVD independent of lifestyle, socioeconomic status, and nutrition, thus highlighting
the potential role of genetics in disease-free survival among individuals with exceptional
parental longevity.
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: September 15, 2017
Accepted:
August 28,
2017
Received:
May 25,
2017
Footnotes
This work was funded by the NIH/NIA K23AG051148 (Dr. Milman), R01AG044829 (Dr. Verghese, Dr. Barzilai), R01AG036921 (Dr. Holtzer), R01AG050448 (Dr. Verghese, Dr. Holtzer), P01AG003949, American Federation for Aging Research (Dr. Milman), and the Glenn Center for the Biology of Human Aging (Dr. Barzilai).
See page 2174 for disclosure information.
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