PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Americans with higher net worth at midlife tend to live longer

Study finds evidence that association between wealth and longevity persists even within siblings and twin pairs

2021-07-23
(Press-News.org) EVANSTON, Ill., --- One of the keys to a long life may lie in your net worth.

In the first wealth and longevity study to incorporate siblings and twin pair data, researchers from Northwestern University analyzed the midlife net worth of adults (mean age 46.7 years) and their mortality rates 24 years later. They discovered those with greater wealth at midlife tended to live longer.

The researchers used data from the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) project, a longitudinal study on aging. Using data from the first collection wave in 1994-1996 through a censor date of 2018, the researchers used survival models to analyze the association between net worth and longevity.

To tease apart factors of genetics and wealth, the full sample was segmented into subsets of siblings and twins.

In the full sample of 5,400 adults, higher net worth was associated with lower mortality risk. Within the data set of siblings and twin pairs (n=2,490), they discovered a similar association with a tendency for the sibling or twin with more wealth to live longer than their co-sibling/twin with less. This finding suggests the wealth-longevity connection may be causal, and isn't simply a reflection of heritable traits or early experiences that cluster in families.

"The within-family association provides strong evidence that an association between wealth accumulation and life expectancy exists, because comparing siblings within the same family to each other controls for all of the life experience and biology that they share," said corresponding author Eric Finegood, a postdoctoral fellow in the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern.

The researchers also considered the possibility that previous health conditions, such as heart disease or cancer, could impact an individual's ability to accrue wealth due to activity limitations or healthcare costs -- possibly confounding any association between wealth and longevity. To address this, they re-analyzed the data using only individuals without cancer or heart disease. However, even within this sub-group of healthy individuals, the within-family association between wealth and longevity remained.

The study's senior author is Greg Miller, the Louis W. Menk Professor of Psychology and faculty fellow at the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern. Co-authors of the study include other Northwestern faculty and trainees (Edith Chen, Daniel Mroczek, Alexa Freedman) as well as researchers from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; West Virginia University; Purdue University; and the University of Minnesota.

"Far too many American families are living paycheck to paycheck with little to no financial savings to draw on in times of need, said Miller. "At the same time, wealth inequality has skyrocketed. Our results suggest that building wealth is important for health at the individual level, even after accounting for where one starts out in life. So, from a public health perspective, policies that support and protect individuals' ability to achieve financial security are needed."

INFORMATION:

The study, "Association of Wealth and Longevity in US Adults at Midlife," will be published in JAMA Health Forum at 11 a.m. (E.D.T.) on July 23.

Media can request a copy of the embargoed study by sending an email to mediarelations@jamanetwork.org.



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

'Feel good' brain messenger can be willfully controlled, new study reveals

Feel good brain messenger can be willfully controlled, new study reveals
2021-07-23
From the thrill of hearing an ice cream truck approaching to the spikes of pleasure while sipping a fine wine, the neurological messenger known as dopamine has been popularly described as the brain's "feel good" chemical related to reward and pleasure. A ubiquitous neurotransmitter that carries signals between brain cells, dopamine, among its many functions, is involved in multiple aspects of cognitive processing. The chemical messenger has been extensively studied from the perspective of external cues, or "deterministic" signals. Instead, University of California San Diego researchers recently ...

Association of wealth with longevity at midlife

2021-07-23
What The Study Did: Researchers investigated the association between net worth at midlife and subsequent longevity in individuals as well as with siblings and twins. Authors: Eric D. Finegood, Ph.D., of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/  (doi:10.1001/jamahealthforum.2021.1652) Editor's Note: The article includes conflicts of interest and funding/support disclosures. Please see the article for additional information, including ...

Experiences, perpetration of identity-based bullying among adolescents

2021-07-23
What The Study Did: Using survey responses from students in some Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, high schools, researchers investigated how experiences of bullying based on race/ethnicity/national origin and other marginalized identities are associated with outcomes for health, mental health and violence among adolescents. Authors: Chardée A. Galán, Ph.D., of the University of Pittsburgh, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.16364) Editor's Note: The article includes conflict of interest and funding/support disclosures. Please see the article for additional ...

Four themes identified as contributors to diseases of despair in Pennsylvania

Four themes identified as contributors to diseases of despair in Pennsylvania
2021-07-23
Hershey, Pa. -- Financial instability, lack of infrastructure, a deteriorating sense of community and family fragmentation are key contributors to diseases of despair in Pennsylvania communities, according to Penn State College of Medicine and Highmark Health researchers. The researchers conducted four focus groups in Pennsylvania communities identified as having high rates of despair-related illnesses. Diseases of despair are medical diagnoses involving alcohol-related disorders, substance-related disorders and suicidal thoughts and behavior. Princeton economists Anne Case and Angus Deaton proposed the concept of deaths of despair in 2015 after observing a decline ...

Why do some people get severe COVID-19? The nose may know

Why do some people get severe COVID-19? The nose may know
2021-07-23
The body's first encounter with SARS-CoV-2, the virus behind COVID-19, happens in the nose and throat, or nasopharynx. A new study in the journal Cell suggests that the first responses in this battleground help determine who will develop severe disease and who will get through with mild or no illness. Building on work published last year identifying SARS-CoV-2-susceptible cells, a team of collaborators at Boston Children's Hospital, MIT, and the University of Mississippi Medical Center comprehensively mapped SARS-CoV-2 infection in the nasopharynx. They obtained samples from the nasal swabs ...

Featured articles from the journal CHEST®, July 2021

Featured articles from the journal CHEST®, July 2021
2021-07-23
Glenview, Ill. - Published monthly, the journal CHEST® features peer-reviewed, cutting-edge original research in chest medicine: Pulmonary, critical care, sleep medicine and related disciplines. Journal topics include asthma, chest infections, COPD, critical care, diffuse lung disease, education and clinical practice, pulmonology and cardiology, sleep, and thoracic oncology. The July issue of CHEST journal includes 85 articles, clinically relevant research, reviews, case series, commentary and more. Each month, the journal also offers complementary web and multimedia activities, ...

Better healthcare management can reduce the risk of delirium among older adults

2021-07-23
Elderly patients with neurological conditions are significantly more likely to develop delirium shortly after they are hospitalised. A new study has discovered that a delayed transfer to a hospital floor is associated with greater short-term risk of delirium among patients aged 65 and over, and for those who arrive to the Emergency Department (ED) on days with higher risk of prolonged lengths of stay - found to be Sunday and Tuesday. Delirium is an acute cognitive disorder characterised by altered awareness, attentional deficits, confusion, and disorientation. Current estimates of new-onset delirium highlight the fact that delirium overwhelmingly develops in medical settings (as high as 82 per cent in intensive care settings) compared ...

Cascaded metasurfaces for dynamic control of THz wavefronts

Cascaded metasurfaces for dynamic control of THz wavefronts
2021-07-23
Electromagnetic (EM) waves in the terahertz (THz) regime contribute to important applications in communications, security imaging, and bio- and chemical sensing. Such wide applicability has resulted in significant technological progress. However, due to weak interactions between natural materials and THz waves, conventional THz devices are typically bulky and inefficient. Although ultracompact active THz devices do exist, current electronic and photonic approaches to dynamic control have lacked efficiency. Recently, rapid developments in metasurfaces have opened new possibilities for the creation of high-efficiency, ultracompact THz ...

"Noisy" gene expression may help improve stem cell therapies

2021-07-23
SAN FRANCISCO, CA--July 22, 2021--To speed up a chemical reaction, a chemist might place the reactants over a Bunsen burner. Adding heat increases the degree of random movements and collisions of particles, accelerating the reaction. In cell biology, one important "reaction" is the transformation of stem cells into all the other cells in the body, a process known as differentiation. Gladstone Institutes researchers have now discovered a molecular mechanism that acts like a Bunsen burner to "turn up the heat" and accelerate differentiation. However, instead of boosting temperature, this process amplifies random fluctuations ...

Mount Sinai researchers develop novel therapy that could be effective in many cancers

2021-07-23
New York, NY (July 23, 2021) -- Mount Sinai researchers have developed a therapeutic agent that shows high effectiveness in vitro at disrupting a biological pathway that helps cancer survive, according to a paper published in Cancer Discovery, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, in July. The therapy is an engineered molecule, named MS21, that causes the degradation of AKT, an enzyme that is overly active in many cancers. This study laid out evidence that pharmacological degradation of AKT is a viable treatment for cancers with mutations in certain genes. AKT is a cancer gene that encodes an enzyme that is frequently abnormally activated in cancer cells to stimulate tumor growth. Degradation of ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

‘Molecular shield’ placed in the nose may soon treat common hay fever trigger

Beetles under climate stress lay larger male eggs: Wolbachia infection drives adaptive reproduction strategy in response to rising temperature and CO₂

Groundbreaking quantum study puts wave-particle duality to work

Weekly injection could be life changing for Parkinson’s patients

Toxic metals linked to impaired growth in infants in Guatemala

Being consistently physically active in adulthood linked to 30–40% lower risk of death

Nerve pain drug gabapentin linked to increased dementia, cognitive impairment risks

Children’s social care involvement common to nearly third of UK mums who died during perinatal period

‘Support, not judgement’: Study explores links between children’s social care involvement and maternal deaths

Ethnic minority and poorer children more likely to die in intensive care

Major progress in fertility preservation after treatment for cancer of the lymphatic system

Fewer complications after additional ultrasound in pregnant women who feel less fetal movement

Environmental impact of common pesticides seriously underestimated

The Milky Way could be teeming with more satellite galaxies than previously thought

New study reveals surprising reproductive secrets of a cricket-hunting parasitoid fly

Media Tip Sheet: Symposia at ESA2025

NSF CAREER Award will power UVA engineer’s research to improve drug purification

Tiny parasitoid flies show how early-life competition shapes adult success

New coating for glass promises energy-saving windows

Green spaces boost children’s cognitive skills and strengthen family well-being

Ancient trees dying faster than expected in Eastern Oregon

Study findings help hone precision of proven CVD risk tool

Most patients with advanced melanoma who received pre-surgical immunotherapy remain alive and disease free four years later

Introducing BioEmu: A generative AI Model that enables high-speed and accurate prediction of protein structural ensembles

Replacing mutated microglia with healthy microglia halts progression of genetic neurological disease in mice and humans

New research shows how tropical plants manage rival insect tenants by giving them separate ‘flats’

Condo-style living helps keep the peace inside these ant plants

Climate change action could dramatically limit rising UK heatwave deaths

Annual heat-related deaths projected to increase significantly due to climate and population change

Researchers discover new way cells protect themselves from damage

[Press-News.org] Americans with higher net worth at midlife tend to live longer
Study finds evidence that association between wealth and longevity persists even within siblings and twin pairs