Childhood intelligence in relation to major causes of death in 68 year follow-up

Re:Childhood intelligence in relation to major causes of dea... by paulpauper on Sunday February 25, 2018 @07:00AM (#16458497)

Figure 4⇓ shows the associations between groupings of childhood intelligence score (10ths or quarters) and deaths related to 15 specific cancers. About half of these showed inverse patterns of association with a degree of linearity, including cancers of the oesophagus, colon or rectum, stomach, liver, lung, kidney, bladder, and blood. The strongest association was evident for death related to lung cancer: the risk in the highest performing 10th of childhood intelligence was reduced by two thirds compared with the lowest performing 10th. Cancers showing negligible or irregular associations with childhood mental ability included mouth, pancreas, skin, ovaries, breast (women only), prostate (men only), and brain or central nervous system.

The problem is higher IQ mean means a healthier lifestyle, which is what protects against cancer, not genes that give rise to high IQ itself. That's why the effect is strongest for smoking, because less intelligent people may be more likely to smoke. Same for drinking, which increases odds of stomach and esophagus and liver cancer. Somewhat disappointing becase it confimrs that we have already suspected, whic his a helathier lifestyle means less risk of certain cancers. Not surprisingly, the effect is non-existent for brain cancers.

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Re:Childhood intelligence in relation to major causes of dea... by bobcostas55 on Sunday February 25, 2018 @08:29AM (#16458837)

>The problem is higher IQ mean means a healthier lifestyle, which is what protects against cancer, not genes that give rise to high IQ itself.

This is not the case, see _The association between intelligence and lifespan is mostly genetic_ (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4795559/). The common factor is almost certainly mutational load.

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Re:Childhood intelligence in relation to major causes of dea... by cimmanom on Sunday February 25, 2018 @09:24AM (#16459075)

Or maybe higher IQ means lower likelihood of having to work as a coal miner (or in other occupations that expose the worker to similar types of pollution and carcinogens)?

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Re:Childhood intelligence in relation to major causes of dea... by Jemm on Sunday February 25, 2018 @08:31AM (#16458850)

Or you could say that smarter people don't smoke.

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Re:Childhood intelligence in relation to major causes of dea... by mathgeek on Sunday February 25, 2018 @08:36AM (#16458862)

You could also say that smoking is more popular among poorer populations, the depressed, those whose parents smoked, etc.

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Re:Childhood intelligence in relation to major causes of dea... by lstroud on Sunday February 25, 2018 @09:30AM (#16459093)

During the timeframe of this study, not smoking would have been less common.

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Re:Childhood intelligence in relation to major causes of dea... by tziki on Sunday February 25, 2018 @07:47AM (#16458661)

>The problem is higher IQ mean means a healthier lifestyle, which is what protects against cancer, not genes that give rise to high IQ itself.

Based on what, exactly?

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Re:Childhood intelligence in relation to major causes of dea... by slx26 on Sunday February 25, 2018 @07:59AM (#16458698)

I assume he's talking about a correlation, and probably not strictly limited to a healthier lifestyle, but also to higher income (on average), which provides potentially better access to healthcare, etc.

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Re:Childhood intelligence in relation to major causes of dea... by projectramo on Sunday February 25, 2018 @08:31AM (#16458845)

I think you can see the difference in these effects by the difference in deaths from smoking vs other cancers.

So the reduction in - for instance - prostate cancer may be due to access to healthcare vs reduction in lunch cancer which might be a proxy for “smarter” decisions.

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