According to this Psychology Today post: "The New England Centenarian Study conducted by Boston University Medical Center found that women who give birth after 40 were four times more likely to live to 100 or longer than were women who gave birth at younger ages."
Fascinating! Except I'm wondering why the Psychology Today article implies causality between giving birth after 40 and living to 100+. Isn't it more likely that people who are able to give birth after 40 may be of better health, or aging more slowly, and that's why they live longer?
ReplyDeleteThat does sound more likely. I visited the link to verify, but couldn't tell which study that statistic would have come from. But I figured, it's in a blog post, so it must be true!
ReplyDeleteI tried to find the study, too, but couldn't find it when skimming the website -- maybe I'll try again later. The other thought I had was that if many of those mothers over 40 have their children through assisted reproduction, they are probably decently well-off, so the longer lifespan could just tie into the benefits of having a higher quality of life.
ReplyDeleteWe need the science to give us a definitive answer!