Longevidad
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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 ¿Son los nonagenarios costarricenses los seres humanos más longevos?(Ensayos en honor a Víctoe Hugo Céspedes Solano. Academia de Centroamérica, 2005) Rosero Bixby, LuisCon base en datos de un registro de población que se lleva en Costa Rica con propósitos electorales, este artículo reestima la mortalidad y la esperanza de vida de los nonagenarios costarricenses. El registro contiene 24.400 nonagenarios que vivieron durante el período 1983-2004. Para asegurar que no hay errores de declaración de la edad, solamente los individuos que se registraron en los tomos oficiales de la época de su nacimiento se incluyen en las estimaciones finales. El análisis es hasta cierto punto de cohortes extintas, con poco espacio para errores de subregistro de defunciones. Dado que los individuos residentes fuera de la Región Central presentan una mortalidad menor y esto puede resultar sospechoso, ellos también fueron excluidos de las estimaciones. La mortalidad a la edad 90 en Costa Rica es 13 por ciento más baja que el promedio de 13 países de ingresos altos con estadísticas confiables. Esta ventaja se incrementa con la edad a razón de un 1 por ciento por año. Los varones tienen una ventaja adicional de un 12 por ciento. La mortalidad de esta población disminuyó a razón de un 0,4 por ciento por año durante el período estudiado, con reducciones más fuertes a edades más avanzadas. La esperanza de vida de los varones a la edad 90 resultó de 4,4 años, medio año más alta que cualquier otro país con estadísticas confiables en el mundo: los varones ancianos costarricenses pueden ser los seres humanos más longevos, al menos cuando se comparan solamente poblaciones nacionales. Aunque esta esperanza de vida es menor que la de las mujeres, la diferencia es de sólo 0,3 años: la más pequeña registrada a estos niveles de mortalidad. La longevidad superior de los ancianos costarricenses se origina principalmente de una menor mortalidad cardiovascular.Item The Nicoya region of Costa Rica : a high longevity island for elderly males(Vienna Yearbook of Population Research, Vol 11, 2013) Rosero Bixby, Luis; Dow, William H.; Rehkopf, David H.Reliable data show that the Nicoyan region of Costa Rica is a hot spot of high longevity. A survival follow-up of 16,300 elderly Costa Ricans estimated a Nicoya death rate ratio (DRR) for males 1990–2011 of 0.80 (0.69–0.93 CI). For a 60-yearold Nicoyan male, the probability of becoming centenarian is seven times that of a Japanese male, and his life expectancy is 2.2 years greater. This Nicoya advantage does not occur in females, is independent of socio-economic conditions, disappears in out-migrants and comes from lower cardiovascular (CV) mortality (DRR = 0.65). Nicoyans have lower levels of biomarkers of CV risk; they are also leaner, taller and suffer fewer disabilities. Two markers of ageing and stress—telomere length and dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate—are also more favourable. The Nicoya diet is prosaic and abundant in traditional foods like rice, beans and animal protein, with low glycemic index and high fibre content.Item Differential DNA methylation and lymphocyte proportions in a Costa Rican high longevity region(Epigenetics & Chromatin,vol.10(21), 2017) McEwen, Lisa M.; Morin, Alexander M.; Edgar, Rachel D.; MacIsaac, Julia L.; Jones, Meaghan J.; Dow, William H.; Rosero Bixby, Luis; Kobor, Michael S.; Rehkopf, David H.Background: The Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica has one of the highest old-age life expectancies in the world, but the underlying biological mechanisms of this longevity are not well understood. As DNA methylation is hypothesized to be a component of biological aging, we focused on this malleable epigenetic mark to determine its association with current residence in Nicoya versus elsewhere in Costa Rica. Examining a population’s unique DNA methylation pattern allows us to differentiate hallmarks of longevity from individual stochastic variation. These differences may be characteristic of a combination of social, biological, and environmental contexts. Methods: In a cross-sectional subsample of the Costa Rican Longevity and Healthy Aging Study, we compared whole blood DNA methylation profiles of residents from Nicoya (n = 48) and non-Nicoya (other Costa Rican regions, n = 47) using the Infinium HumanMethylation450 microarray. Results: We observed a number of differences that may be markers of delayed aging, such as bioinformatically derived differential CD8+ T cell proportions. Additionally, both site- and region-specific analyses revealed DNA methylation patterns unique to Nicoyans. We also observed lower overall variability in DNA methylation in the Nicoyan population, another hallmark of younger biological age. Conclusions: Nicoyans represent an interesting group of individuals who may possess unique immune cell proportions as well as distinct differences in their epigenome, at the level of DNA methylationItem Costa Rican Longevity and Healthy Aging Study(Encyclopedia of Gerontology and Population Aging. Springer Cham, 2019) Rosero Bixby, Luis; Dow, William H.; Brenes Camacho, GilbertThe Costa Rican Longevity and Healthy Aging Study (CRELES, or Costa Rica Estudio de Longevidad y Envejecimiento Saludable) is a set of nationally representative longitudinal surveys of health and life-course experiences of older Costa Ricans, conducted by the University of Costa Rica’s Centro Centroamericano de Población in collaboration with the University of California at Berkeley. CRELES is part of the growing set of Health and Retirement Surveys being conducted around the world (See “Health and Retirement Study”). Costa Rica is of particular interest to study given its high longevity: life expectancy is greater than that of the United States, despite being a middle-income country. CRELES comprises five waves of data from two birth cohort panels (See “Cross-Sectional Research/Panel Studies (Longitudinal Studies)”). The original CRELES Pre-1945 cohort is a sample of more than 2,800 Costa Rica residents born in 1945 or before. There are three waves of interviews for this panel conducted mainly in 2005, 2007, and 2009. Wellcome Trust funded this panel (Grant N. 072406). The CRELES 1945–1955 Retirement Cohort (RC) is a sample of about 2800 Costa Rica residents born in 1945–1955 plus 1400 of their spouses, interviewed mainly in 2011 and 2013 (waves 4 and 5). The US National Institute on Aging (grant R01AG031716) funded this panel through the University of California, Berkeley. CRELES data are well-suited for studying longevity and health determinants, relationships between socioeconomic status and health, stress and health, patterns of health behaviors, and prospective mortality.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.