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Early cohort mortality predicts the rate of aging in the cohort: a historical analysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 May 2012

H. Beltrán-Sánchez ,
E. M. Crimmins  and
C. E. Finch
H. Beltrán-Sánchez*
Affiliation:
Davis School of Gerontology and the Dornsife College, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA Center for Population and Development Studies, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
E. M. Crimmins
Affiliation:
Davis School of Gerontology and the Dornsife College, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
C. E. Finch
Affiliation:
Davis School of Gerontology and the Dornsife College, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
*
*Address for correspondence: Dr H. Beltrán-Sánchez, Center for Population & Development Studies, Harvard University, 9 Bow Street, Cambridge, MA 02135, USA. (Emails beltrans@usc.edu, beltrans@hsph.harvard.edu)
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Abstract

Early environmental influences on later-life health and mortality are well recognized in the doubling of life expectancy since 1800. To further define these relationships, we analyzed the associations between early-life mortality and both the estimated mortality level at age 40 and the exponential acceleration in mortality rates with age characterized by the Gompertz model. Using mortality data from 630 cohorts born throughout the 19th and early 20th century in nine European countries, we developed a multilevel model that accounts for cohort and period effects in later-life mortality. We show that early-life mortality, which is linked to exposure to infection and poor nutrition, predicts both the estimated cohort mortality level at age 40 and the subsequent Gompertz rate of mortality acceleration during aging. After controlling for effects of country and period, the model accounts for the majority of variance in the Gompertz parameters (about 90% of variation in the estimated level of mortality at age 40 and about 78% of variation in the Gompertz slope). The gains in cohort survival to older ages are entirely due to large declines in adult mortality level, because the rates of mortality acceleration at older ages became faster. These findings apply to cohorts born in both the 19th century and the early 20th century. This analysis defines new links in the developmental origins of adult health and disease in which effects of early-life circumstances, such as exposure to infections or poor nutrition, persist into mid-adulthood and remain evident in the cohort mortality rates from ages 40 to 90.

Keywords

cohort mortalitycohort survivalearly-life conditionsGompertz modellife course
Type
Original Article
Information
Journal of Developmental Origins of Health and Disease , Volume 3 , Issue 5 , October 2012 , pp. 380 - 386
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press and the International Society for Developmental Origins of Health and Disease 2012

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