Americans with higher net worth at midlife tend to live longer

Date:
July 23, 2021
Source:
Northwestern University
Summary:
In a wealth and longevity study to incorporate siblings and
twin pair data, researchers 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.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
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." ========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Northwestern_University. Original
written by Stephanie Kulke. Note: Content may be edited for style
and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Eric D. Finegood, Daniel A. Briley, Nicholas A. Turiano, Alexa
Freedman,
Susan C. South, Robert F. Krueger, Edith Chen, Daniel K. Mroczek,
Gregory E. Miller. Association of Wealth With Longevity in US
Adults at Midlife.

JAMA Health Forum, 2021; 2 (7): e211652 DOI: 10.1001/
jamahealthforum.2021.1652 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/07/210723121517.htm

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