Mortality among family members of the oldest-old Chinese

Yun Zhou, Peking University
Feng Tian, China Population and Development Research Center

Data collected by project “Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey in 1998” shows that longevity was closely related to that of one’s family members. Parents of the informants generally lived longer by the standards of life expectancy of their cohorts as well as of current life expectancy. Longevity may be selective among family members. A further analysis will emphasize on the elderly who share a similar environment at their early ages. These will include the siblings of the elderly interviewed who lived in same area they were born or lived together when they were young. At this stage, the article will only seek to compare for any possible relationship between longevity and early-life environment.