End of Life Events and Causes of Death in Danish Long-Lived Siblings: Reduced Dementia Risk Compared to Sporadic Long-Livers

Angéline Galvin, Jacob Krabbe Pedersen, Konstantin G. Arbeev, Mary F. Feitosa, Svetlana Ukraintseva, Shanshan Yao, Anne B. Newman, Kaare Christensen

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

Abstract

Background: Better physical robustness and resilience of long-lived siblings compared to sporadic long-livers has been demonstrated in several studies. However, it is unknown whether long-lived siblings also end their lives better. Objective: To investigate end-of-life (EoL) events (dementia diagnosis, medication, hospitalizations in the last 5 years of life), causes of death, and location of death in long-lived siblings compared to matched sporadic long-livers from the Danish population. Methods: Long-lived siblings were identified through three nationwide Danish studies in which the inclusion criteria varied, but 99.5% of the families had at least two siblings surviving to age 90 + . Those who died between 2006 and 2018 were included, and randomly matched with sex, year-of-birth and age-at-death controls (i.e., sporadic long-lived controls) from the Danish population. Results: A total of 5,262 long-lived individuals were included (1,754 long-lived siblings, 3,508 controls; 63% women; median age at death 96.1). Long-lived siblings had a significantly lower risk of being diagnosed with dementia in the last years of life (p = 0.027). There was no significant difference regarding the number of prescribed drugs, hospital stays, days in hospital, and location of death. Compared to controls, long-lived siblings presented a lower risk of dying from dementia (p = 0.020) and ill-defined conditions (p = 0.030). Conclusions: In many aspects long-lived siblings end their lives similar to sporadic long-livers, with the important exception of lower dementia risk during the last 5 years of life. These results suggest that long-lived siblings are excellent candidates for identifying environmental and genetic protective factors of dementia.

Original languageEnglish
JournalJournal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD
Volume99
Issue number4
Pages (from-to)1397-1407
ISSN1387-2877
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2024

Keywords

  • Aging
  • Alzheimer’s disease
  • causes of death
  • dementia
  • end of life events
  • familial longevity

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'End of Life Events and Causes of Death in Danish Long-Lived Siblings: Reduced Dementia Risk Compared to Sporadic Long-Livers'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this