| Literature DB >> 20885919 |
Jonathan Arnold1, Jianliang Dai, Lusine Nahapetyan, Ankit Arte, Mary Ann Johnson, Dorothy Hausman, Willard L Rodgers, Robert Hensley, Peter Martin, Maurice Macdonald, Adam Davey, Ilene C Siegler, S Michal Jazwinski, Leonard W Poon.
Abstract
Used a population-based sample (Georgia Centenarian Study, GCS), to determine proportions of centenarians reaching 100 years as (1) survivors (43%) of chronic diseases first experienced between 0-80 years of age, (2) delayers (36%) with chronic diseases first experienced between 80-98 years of age, or (3) escapers (17%) with chronic diseases only at 98 years of age or older. Diseases fall into two morbidity profiles of 11 chronic diseases; one including cardiovascular disease, cancer, anemia, and osteoporosis, and another including dementia. Centenarians at risk for cancer in their lifetime tended to be escapers (73%), while those at risk for cardiovascular disease tended to be survivors (24%), delayers (39%), or escapers (32%). Approximately half (43%) of the centenarians did not experience dementia. Psychiatric disorders were positively associated with dementia, but prevalence of depression, anxiety, and psychoses did not differ significantly between centenarians and an octogenarian control group. However, centenarians were higher on the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) than octogenarians. Consistent with our model of developmental adaptation in aging, distal life events contribute to predicting survivorship outcome in which health status as survivor, delayer, or escaper appears as adaptation variables late in life.Entities:
Year: 2010 PMID: 20885919 PMCID: PMC2946582 DOI: 10.1155/2010/989315
Source DB: PubMed Journal: Curr Gerontol Geriatr Res ISSN: 1687-7063
Figure 1(a) Exponential growth of Centenarians in England over the last century [2]. (b) Network of morbidity in centenarians in the GCS [3] using lifetime prevalence of 11 most common chronic diseases in the GCS. All pairwise associations that were not significant by an exact test were set to zero, and the remaining significant (with α = 0.05) pairwise correlations (r xy) between chronic diseases x and y were all positive. These significant pairwise positive associations were graphically rendered using the distance 1-r xy and multi-dimensional scaling [9] to compute coordinates for the chronic diseases. The coordinates were then graphed as a network [10]. COPD denotes chronic pulmonary obstruction disease. Chronic and acute pneumonia were not distinguished in the medical questionnaire. (c) Average linkage [11] was used to compute a dendrogram independently relating the 11 chronic diseases based on their pairwise correlations {r xy}. (d) The distribution of GDRS scores [12] in centenarians is compared with the distribution of GDRS scores in 80 octogenarians as a control group. A GDRS score of 4–7 is indicative of dementia, a score of 3, of mild cognitive impairment, and a score of 1-2, as unaffected.
The lifetime prevalences of psychiatric disorders other than dementia in centenarians versus octogenarian control group in GCS [3] do not differ.
| Disease* | Octogenarians (%) | Centenarians (%) | Total # |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dementia | 13 (14%)* | 136 (57%)* | 321 |
| Depression | 14 (17.5%) | 36 (14.8%) | 324 |
| Anxiety | 5 (6.3%) | 17 (7.0%) | 324 |
| Psychosis | 1 (1.3%) | 6 (2.5%) | 324 |
| Total | 33 | 185 | 324 |
*The row categories are not mutually exclusive, but dementia tends to be positively associated with psychiatric disorders (Figure 1(b)). The association of Dementia with age (Control versus Centenarian) is significant with P < .00001 by Fisher's Exact test [14] for a 2 × 2 table, but the associations of Depression, Anxiety, and Psychosis individually with age (Control versus Centenarian) are not significant with P > .05. If we combine mental health across Depression, Anxiety, and Psychosis and test for association with age (Control versus Centenarian) by Fisher's Exact test [14] for a 2 × 2 table, the association of the aggregate variable indicating Depression, Anxiety, or Psychosis with age is not significant. The percents reported in this table are among 80 octogenarians or 244 centenarians.
Figure 2The factors of cardiovascular disease (a), cancer (b), pneumonia (c), psychiatric disorders (d), and living arrangement (e) determine the fraction of survivors, delayers, and escapers [4] among centenarians. The observed (in blue) and expected proportions (in red) track each other in that the logistic multinomial model well predicts the outcome of a being a survivor (S), delayer (D), or escaper (E) [4]. In panels (a)–(e), a square indicates the presence of a disease and a circle, the absence of a disease. (f). Centenarians were higher (with mean of 3.21 and standard deviation of 2.56) on the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) [6] than the control group of octogenarians (with mean of 2.13 and standard deviation of 2.62). The proportion (15.5%) of centenarians with GDS from 6–15 is significantly different from that proportion (4.6%) in octogenarians (Z = 3.13, P < .001).
Figure 3Developmental Adaptation: The influence of distal variables (e.g., cumulative life events, parents' education, education, and childhood health) on adaptational outcomes in very late life.
Lifetime Prevalence of chronic diseases among centenarians in the GCS.
| Prevalence | Prevalence | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chronic Disease | Male (%) | Female (%) | Pooled over sexes (%) | Number of centenarians |
| cardiovascular | 27 (73) | 169 (82) | 196 (80) | 244 |
| dementia | 15 (41) | 121 (60)* | 136 (57) | 240$ |
| pneumonia | 15 (41) | 90 (43) | 105 (43) | 244 |
| cancer | 14 (38) | 59 (29) | 73 (30) | 244 |
| osteoporosis | 1 (3) | 58 (28)*** | 59 (24) | 244 |
| psychiatric | 2 (5) | 45 (22)* | 47 (19) | 244 |
| anemia | 5 (14) | 37 (18) | 42 (17) | 244 |
| diabetes | 3 (8) | 18 (9) | 21 (9) | 244 |
| kidney | 7 (19) | 11 (5)** | 18 (7) | 244 |
| neurological | 4 (11) | 11 (5) | 15 (6) | 244 |
| COPD | 2 (5) | 2 (1) | 4 (2) | 244 |
*P < .05 by Fisher's Exact Test of disease associated with sex [19]; **P < .01 by Fisher's Exact Test of disease associated with sex [19]; ***P < .001 by Fisher's Exact test of disease associated with sex [19].
$Four centenarians had missing data.
(a) Age Distribution, 2000 Census versus GCS Participants
| Participants | 2000 Census | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Age | Number | Percent | Number | Percent |
| 98 | 61 | 25% | 362 | 30% |
| 99 | 48 | 20 | 275 | 23 |
| 100–104 | 126 | 52 | 526 | 42 |
| 105+ | 9 | 4 | 81 | 6 |
| TOTAL | 244 | 100% | 1244 | 100% |
(b) Gender Distribution, 2000 Census versus Participants
| Participants | 2000 Census | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gender | Number | Percent | Number | Percent |
| Male | 37 | 15% | 237 | 19% |
| Female | 207 | 85 | 1007 | 81 |
| TOTAL | 244 | 100% | 1244 | 100% |
(c) Race Distribution, 2000 Census versus Participants
| Participants | 2000 Census | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Race | Number | Percent | Number | Percent |
| Black | 52 | 21% | 397 | 32% |
| Non-Black | 192 | 79 | 847 | 68 |
| TOTAL | 244 | 100% | 1244 | 100% |
(a) Avenue to 100 in GCS (N = 244) and NECS studies (N = 424)
| Avenue | Survivor (%) | Delayer (%) | Escaper (%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| GCS | 43 | 36 | 17 |
| NECS | 38 | 42 | 19 |
Outcomes (columns) are not significantly different by exact test (P = .27) [14].
(b) Avenue to 100 in GCS and NECS studies when matched on chronic diseases
| Avenue | Survivor (%) | Delayer (%) | Escaper (%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| GCS | 35 | 35 | 24 |
| NECS | 38 | 42 | 19 |
Outcomes (columns) are not significantly different by exact test (P = .14) [14].
(c) Avenue to 100 in GCS dependent on disease category
| Avenue | Survivor (%) | Delayer (%) | Escaper (%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cardiovascular disease | 24 | 39 | 32 |
| Cancer | 11 | 14 | 73 |
Outcomes (columns) are significantly different (P < .0001) between disease categories by an exact test [14].
(a)
| Disease | Average Age at Onset |
| Average Age at Onset from Cox regression |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cancer* | 78 ± 3 | 22 | 60 ± 0.5 | 238 |
| Cardiovascular | 83 ± 1 | 181 | 77 ± 0.3 | 226 |
*Many cancers are absent, and skin cancers were excluded because of their later onset. The n above differs from the totals in (b) due to missing data.
(b)
| Disease | No cancer | Cancer | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Octogenarians | 58 | 22 (28%) | 80 |
| Centenarians | 171 | 73 (30%) | 244 |
| Total | 229 | 95 (29%) | 324 |
A Fisher's exact test [14] is not significant at α = 0.05, nor is a z-test, significant, with z = 0.90 on the proportions, 0.28 and 0.30.
(c)
| Disease | No Cardiovascular | Cardiovascular | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Octogenarians | 19 | 61 (76%) | 80 |
| Centenarians | 48 | 196 (80%) | 244 |
| Total | 67 | 257 (79%) | 324 |
A Fisher's exact test [14] is not significant at α = 0.05, nor is a z-test, significant, with z = 1.80 on the proportions, 0.76 and 0.80.