A new study co-authored by DUPRI Scholar Alexander Kulminski suggests that the health advantages seen in families with exceptional longevity may begin much earlier in life than previously understood.
Published in Nature Communications, the study draws on a multigenerational cohort of Danish families in which multiple siblings lived to very old ages. The researchers linked information on these families and their descendants to Denmark’s nationwide population, health, socioeconomic, and birth registers. These longitudinal administrative data made it possible to trace family relationships across generations and examine early-life outcomes such as infant mortality, birth characteristics, and neonatal health alongside parental socioeconomic and behavioral factors.
The researchers found that third-generation grandchildren of longevity-enriched families had lower risks of several adverse early-life health outcomes, including substantially lower infant mortality and more favorable neonatal health indicators. These advantages were weaker and less consistent among fourth-generation great-grandchildren, suggesting that the health benefits associated with exceptional longevity may diminish across successive generations.
The patterns could not be fully explained by measured differences in parental education, income, maternal smoking, whether longevity was transmitted through the maternal or paternal line, or broader improvements in population health over time.
By showing that advantages associated with exceptionally long-lived families can already be detected around birth and infancy, the study adds a developmental perspective to research on healthy aging and longevity.
Photo by Barnabas Piper on Unsplash
Citation
Matthew Thomas Keys, Søren Netra, Dorthe Almind Pedersen, Pernille Stemann Larsen, Alexander Kulminski, Mary F. Feitosa, Mary Wojczynski, Michael Province, and Kaare Christensen. "Developmental origins of exceptional health and survival: a four-generation family cohort study." Nature Communications. 17, 6279 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-72433-5