Genetic variants linked to education predict longevity.

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A
Authors
Abstract

Educational attainment is associated with many health outcomes, including longevity. It is also known to be substantially heritable. Here, we used data from three large genetic epidemiology cohort studies (Generation Scotland, n = ∼17,000; UK Biobank, n = ∼115,000; and the Estonian Biobank, n = ∼6,000) to test whether education-linked genetic variants can predict lifespan length. We did so by using cohort members' polygenic profile score for education to predict their parents' longevity. Across the three cohorts, meta-analysis showed that a 1 SD higher polygenic education score was associated with ∼2.7% lower mortality risk for both mothers (total ndeaths = 79,702) and ∼2.4% lower risk for fathers (total ndeaths = 97,630). On average, the parents of offspring in the upper third of the polygenic score distribution lived 0.55 y longer compared with those of offspring in the lower third. Overall, these results indicate that the genetic contributions to educational attainment are useful in the prediction of human longevity.

Year of Publication
2016
Journal
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A
Volume
113
Issue
47
Pages
13366-13371
Date Published
2016 Nov 22
ISSN
1091-6490
DOI
10.1073/pnas.1605334113
PubMed ID
27799538
PubMed Central ID
PMC5127357
Links
Grant list
MC_UP_A620_1015 / Medical Research Council / United Kingdom
MC_U147574232 / Medical Research Council / United Kingdom
MC_UU_12011/2 / Medical Research Council / United Kingdom
MC_U147585819 / Medical Research Council / United Kingdom
CZD/16/6/4 / Chief Scientist Office / United Kingdom