TY - JOUR
T1 - Genetic variants linked to education predict longevity
AU - Marioni, RE
AU - Ritchie, S J
AU - Joshi, PK
AU - Hagenaars, SP
AU - Okbay, Aysu
AU - Fischer, K
AU - Adams, M J
AU - Hill, WD
AU - Davies, G
AU - Nagyk, R
AU - Amadork, C
AU - Lall, K
AU - Metspalu, A
AU - Liewald, DC
AU - Campbell, A (Archie)
AU - Wilson, JF
AU - Hayward, C
AU - Esko, T
AU - Porteous, DJ
AU - Gale, C R
AU - Deary, IJ
PY - 2016
Y1 - 2016
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
U2 - 10.1073/pnas.1605334113
DO - 10.1073/pnas.1605334113
M3 - Article
C2 - 27799538
SN - 0027-8424
VL - 113
SP - 13366
EP - 13371
JO - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the U.S.A.
JF - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the U.S.A.
IS - 47
ER -