Reproduction and longevity among the British peerage: the effect of frailty and health selection.
Whether a cost of reproduction exists among humans is still questionable. A major study of aristocratic British families finds a significant positive correlation between parity and late-life mortality, which indicates a trade-off between reproduction and longevity. This result is supported by four other studies, while earlier studies have not found a relationship or came to the opposite conclusion. We show that in natural fertility populations the relationship between fertility and late-life mortality cannot be studied correctly without considering the effects of differences in health and of mortality selection during childbearing ages because these two effects lead to a dampening of the true relationship. If these effects are controlled in Hollingsworth's genealogy of the British peerage a significant trade-off between reproduction and longevity exists for females but not for males.
Doblhammer
Gabriele
G
Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Konrad-Zuse-Strasse 1, 18057 Rostock, Germany. doblhammer@demogr.mpg.de
Oeppen
Jim
J
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005075:Biological Evolution; D005260:Female; D005298:Fertility / Q000502:physiology*; D005789:Genealogy and Heraldry; D049669:History, 16th Century; D049670:History, 17th Century; D049671:History, 18th Century; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D008136:Longevity / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009026:Mortality; D006113:United Kingdom