Research has suggested
that children of long-lived parents might age more successfully than children
of short-lived parents.
The aim of this study is
to contribute further to the understanding of the association between parental
longevity and offspring’s successful ageing.
We used data from wave one
of the English Longitudinal study of ageing (ELSA) to investigate the association
between three measures of parental longevity and the respondents’ cognitive
and physical functioning, self-reported health and several chronic diseases.
We found that parental lifespan,
especially mother’s lifespan, is positively associated with cognitive
functioning at older age. Parental lifespan and mother’s lifespan were
also found to be associated with a decreased likelihood of occurrence of some
chronic diseases such as pulmonary disease, coronary heart disease, hypertension
and poor health.
