Lifespan depends on month of birth (2000)
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Re: Lifespan depends on month of birth (2000)
#2Leonid Gavrilov and Natalia Gavrilova are a good resource for this sort of demography and epidemiology of aging. [1] In particular they have a lot of material on season of birth effects. [2]
Tangentially related to the seasonal effects is data suggesting that solar cycles also influence longevity, possibly through quite indirect responses to levels of UV exposure in pregnant women. [3] You can see how this might be relevant to season as well, but it is only one of a number of mechanistic theories on the subject.
This sort of thing ties back in to application of reliability theory to aging [4], wherein to make the models fit the observed data individuals have to be born with a preexisting non-zero damage load.
[1]: http://longevity-science.org/
[2]: http://longevity-science.org/Season-of-Birth.pdf
[3]: http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/282/1801/2014...
[4]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reliability_theory_of_aging_an...
Re: Lifespan depends on month of birth (2000)
#3This is interesting. They seem to think it is in utero effect. Maybe Vitamin D?
I wondered if they considered if the cause is age when starting school. I know that birth month has pretty powerful effects for educational attainment.
Re: Lifespan depends on month of birth (2000)
#4This is interesting. They seem to think it is in utero effect. Maybe Vitamin D? I wondered if they considered if the cause is age when starting school. I know that birth month has pretty powerful effects for educational attainment.
What month should I conceive my child to maximize their educational attainment?
I'm only half joking.
Re: Lifespan depends on month of birth (2000)
#5This is interesting. They seem to think it is in utero effect. Maybe Vitamin D? I wondered if they considered if the cause is age when starting school. I know that birth month has pretty powerful effects for educational attainment.
What month should I conceive my child to maximize their educational attainment? I'm only half joking.
Depends on the rules which vary by location, but you want your kid to be the oldest in the class. Your older kid is going to believe she is very bright in 1st grade, and have a lifetime of confidence to achieve great things. The real reason she was such a good student in 1st grade is because she was just older.
Re: Lifespan depends on month of birth (2000)
#6Earlier quoted context omitted.
What month should I conceive my child to maximize their educational attainment? I'm only half joking.
Depends on the rules which vary by location, but you want your kid to be the oldest in the class. Your older kid is going to believe she is very bright in 1st grade, and have a lifetime of confidence to achieve great things. The real reason she was such a good student in 1st grade is because she was just older.
I can't cite any off the top of my head, but more recent research has actually directly contradicted this. Being the oldest is definitely a benefit in athletics due to greater size and strength throughout school. And you're right that older kids have an advantage in early grades in academics as well. In later grades though, that advantage disappears, and in fact, reverses. (The hypothesis I've read is that the reversal is due to greater effort being required in early grades by younger children, resulting in better preparedness for later grades, when the innate advantage of slightly greater age becomes less significant.)
Re: Lifespan depends on month of birth (2000)
#7Earlier quoted context omitted.
What month should I conceive my child to maximize their educational attainment? I'm only half joking.
Depends on the rules which vary by location, but you want your kid to be the oldest in the class. Your older kid is going to believe she is very bright in 1st grade, and have a lifetime of confidence to achieve great things. The real reason she was such a good student in 1st grade is because she was just older.
Yes but how much does this explain? Even being convinced of the significance of the effect, I'd like to know the magnitude, as well as how much the magnitude changes conditioned on success. E.g. do the very successful (however defined) have a higher likelihood of being the oldest in their class?
Re: Lifespan depends on month of birth (2000)
#8Leonid Gavrilov and Natalia Gavrilova are a good resource for this sort of demography and epidemiology of aging. [1] In particular they have a lot of material on season of birth effects. [2] Tangentially related to the seasonal effects is data suggesting that solar cycles also influence longevity, possibly through quite indirect responses to levels of UV exposure in pregnant women. [3] You can see how this might be r…
But the data in the post does not seem to be super correlated to seasons. You can see that the decrease in life expectancy occurs way before spring (as soon as February) which is still supposed to be a winter month. So the season link is weak.
Re: Lifespan depends on month of birth (2000)
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
What month should I conceive my child to maximize their educational attainment? I'm only half joking.
Depends on the rules which vary by location, but you want your kid to be the oldest in the class. Your older kid is going to believe she is very bright in 1st grade, and have a lifetime of confidence to achieve great things. The real reason she was such a good student in 1st grade is because she was just older.
> The real reason she was such a good student in 1st grade is because she was just older.
That may be an intuitive reasoning but not sure it holds true. I have seen numerous times the youngest students performing actually better in class than older ones. Do you have hard data to support this ?
Re: Lifespan depends on month of birth (2000)
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
What month should I conceive my child to maximize their educational attainment? I'm only half joking.
Depends on the rules which vary by location, but you want your kid to be the oldest in the class. Your older kid is going to believe she is very bright in 1st grade, and have a lifetime of confidence to achieve great things. The real reason she was such a good student in 1st grade is because she was just older.
I know this sub-thread started in half-jest, but your response got me thinking:
1. Month of birth directly determines a child's age compared to their classmates.
2. An older child among younger peers performs better academically.
3. Academic aptitude is correlated with income.
4. Income is correlated with longevity.
Admittedly, hypothesis #2 is iffy. And the good old "correlation is not causation" adage applies for #3 and #4.