Parental age and its influence on functional dependency and cognitive decline in older adults: a cohort analysis
Zongbao Li, Fan Hu, Shaojie Li, Yao Yao, Yanhui Lu · 2026
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Description
Zongbao Li and four co-authors asked whether a parent's age at childbirth echoes in a child's old age in a 2026 cohort study. The team used the Chinese Health and Longevity Longitudinal Survey, following offspring from a 2008 baseline through 2021. They measured daily-living function, thinking scores, and death.
Children born to mothers aged 37 or older had higher odds of both daily-living limits and thinking problems in old age. Fathers aged 43 or older showed the opposite pattern, with lower odds of both. Paternal age also trended toward lower death risk, most clearly among offspring of uneducated parents. Having siblings who help with care softened the maternal-age risks. The authors stress these are observed links, not proof of cause.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Zongbao Li, Fan Hu, Shaojie Li, Yao Yao, Yanhui Lu |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 47 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |