Blame the parents? The association between parental longevity and successful ageing

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.