Longevidad
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Item Traditional rural dietary pattern and all-cause mortality in a prospective cohort study of elderly Costa Ricans: the Costa Rican Longevity and Healthy Aging Study (CRELES)(The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2024) Zhang, Yundan; Cortés Ortiz, Mónica V.; Leung, Cindy W.; Baylin, Ana; Rosero Bixby, Luis; Ruiz Narváez, Edward A.Costa Rica, as many other Latin American countries, is experiencing a fast demographic aging. It is estimated that by 2030, 18.5% of the population, or almost 1 of every 5 Costa Ricans, will be 60 y or older, compared with 7.9% or 1 of every 13 Costa Ricans in 1999 [1]. As the population ages, chronic health conditions such as cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) and neurodegenerative disorders are expected to increase in prevalence posing growing challenges to the health of the Costa Rican population. With the demographic shift toward an aging population, there is an urgent need to study determinants of longevity and healthy aging. Diet—as part of a healthy lifestyle—is a key modifiable factor that may help to minimize the burden of age-related health conditions. Beans are a major source of protein and fiber in Costa Rican adults and part of traditional diets in most Latin American countries. High bean consumption has been found associated with a protective cardiometabolic prolife such as low total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol [2,3]. In the Costa Rican population specifically, intake of beans has been associated with lower risk of nonfatal myocardial infarction in middle-aged adults [4]. We recently reported that a traditional Costa Rican rural dietary pattern, rich in beans and rice, was associated with longer leukocyte telomeres—a marker of biologic aging—in Costa Rican adults 60 y and older [5]. However, no studies have examined whether adherence to a traditional diet in elderly Costa Ricans may also be associated with lower mortality. Because of the nutrition transition (i.e., a shift from traditional diets to an increased consumption of processed foods highs in sugars, fats, and salt) experienced by Costa Rica in the last decades [4,6,7], it is essential to evaluate the potential impact of traditional diets on promoting healthy aging and longevity within an aging population. In this study, we assessed the association between a traditional rural dietary pattern, as well as their major food components beans and rice, and all-cause mortality among elderly Costa Ricans aged 60 y and older at baseline. We hypothesized that higher scores on the traditional dietary pattern are associated with lower all-cause mortality in elderly Costa Ricans. We also assessed whether additional dietary patterns may be associated with all-cause mortality. We used longitudinal and nationally representative data from the Costa Rican Longevity and Healthy Aging Study (CRELES).Item The vanishing advantage of longevity in Nicoya, Costa Rica: A cohort shif(Demographic Research, vol.49 (27, 2023) Rosero Bixby, LuisBACKGROUND The Nicoya region in Costa Rica has been identified as one of a handful of hotspots of extreme longevity. The evidence supporting this status comes mostly from observing the 1990 and 2000 decades and cohorts born before 1930. OBJECTIVE To determine how the longevity advantage of older men in Nicoya has progressed in the period 1990 to 2020 and in cohorts born from 1900 to 1950. METHODS Remaining length of life and adult mortality were estimated using new public administrative records from the electoral system and a Gompertz regression model. A new nationwide survival-time database of 550,000 adult Costa Ricans who were alive at any point during 1990–2020 was put together. RESULTS The longevity advantage of Nicoya is disappearing in a trend driven mostly by cohort effects. While Nicoyan males born in 1905 had 33% lower adult mortality rates than other Costa Ricans, those born in 1945 had 10% higher rates. The original geographic hotspot of low elderly mortality, coined the Nicoya blue zone, has decreased to a small area south of the peninsula around the corridor from Hojancha inland to the beach town of Sámara. However, Nicoyans born before 1930 who are still alive continue to show exceptionally high longevity. CONCLUSIONS Surviving Nicoyan males born before 1930 are exceptional human beings living longer than expected lives. Not so for more recent cohorts. The window of opportunity to meet and study pre-1930 individuals is closing.Item Epigenome-Wide Association Study and Epigenetic Age Acceleration Associated with Cigarette Smoking among Costa Rican Adults(Scientific Reports, Vol. 12 Núm, 2022) Cárdenas, Andrés; Ecker, Simone; Fadadu, Raj P.; Huen, Karen; Orozco, Allan; McEwen, Lisa M.; Engelbrecht, Hannah Ruth; Gladish, Nicole; Kobor, Michael S.; Rosero Bixby, Luis; Dow, William H.; Rehkopf, David H.Smoking-associated DNA methylation (DNAm) signatures are reproducible among studies of mostly European descent, with mixed evidence if smoking accelerates epigenetic aging and its relationship to longevity. We evaluated smoking-associated DNAm signatures in the Costa Rican Study on Longevity and Healthy Aging (CRELES), including participants from the high longevity region of Nicoya. We measured genome-wide DNAm in leukocytes, tested Epigenetic Age Acceleration (EAA) from five clocks and estimates of telomere length (DNAmTL), and examined effect modification by the high longevity region. 489 participants had a mean (SD) age of 79.4 (10.8) years, and 18% were from Nicoya. Overall, 7.6% reported currently smoking, 35% were former smokers, and 57.4% never smoked. 46 CpGs and five regions (e.g. AHRR, SCARNA6/SNORD39, SNORA20, and F2RL3) were differentially methylated for current smokers. Former smokers had increased Horvath’s EAA (1.69-years; 95% CI 0.72, 2.67), Hannum’s EAA (0.77-years; 95% CI 0.01, 1.52), GrimAge (2.34-years; 95% CI1.66, 3.02), extrinsic EAA (1.27-years; 95% CI 0.34, 2.21), intrinsic EAA (1.03-years; 95% CI 0.12, 1.94) and shorter DNAmTL (− 0.04-kb; 95% CI − 0.08, − 0.01) relative to non-smokers. There was no evidence of effect modification among residents of Nicoya. Our findings recapitulate previously reported and novel smoking-associated DNAm changes in a Latino cohort.Item Diet and leukocyte telomere length in a population with extended longevity: the Costa Rican longevity and healthy aging study (CRELES)(Nutrients, 13(8), 2021) Ruiz Narváez, Edward A.; Baylin, Ana; Azofeifa Navas, Jorge; Leal Esquivel, Alejandro; Rosero Bixby, LuisElderly Costa Ricans have lower mortality rates compared to their counterparts from developed countries. Reasons for this survival advantage are not completely known. In the present study, we aimed to identify dietary factors associated with leukocyte telomere length (LTL), a marker of biologic aging, in the elderly population of Costa Rica. We conducted prospective analysis in 909 participants aged 60+ years from the Costa Rican Longevity and Healthy Aging Study (CRELES). We used a food frequency questionnaire to assess usual diet. We calculated dietary patterns using Principal Component Analysis (PCA). We used generalized linear models to examine the association of dietary patterns and food groups with leukocyte telomere length. We found two major dietary patterns explaining 9.15% and 7.18% of the total variation of food intake, respectively. The first dietary pattern, which represents a traditional Costa Rican rice and beans pattern, was more frequent in rural parts of the country and was positively associated with baseline LTL: (95% CI) = 42.0 base-pairs (bp) (9.9 bp, 74.1 bp) per one-unit increase of the traditional dietary pattern. In analysis of individual food groups, intake of grains was positively associated with baseline LTL: (95% CI) = 43.6 bp (13.9 bp, 73.3 bp) per one-serving/day increase of consumption of grains. Our results suggest that dietary factors, in particular a traditional food pattern, are associated with telomere length and may contribute to the extended longevity of elderly Costa Ricans.