IQ As a Longevity Factor

An observational study in which 1,145 men and women participated suggests that mental acumen may be linked to how long one may live.  G. David Batty, from the University of Glasgow (Scotland), and colleagues analyzed data compiled in the West of Scotland Twenty-07 study, to compare the strength of the association between intelligence quotient (IQ) and cardiovascular disease mortality with the predictive power for established risk factors.  The researchers found that study subjects with higher IQ lived longer, with the impact of IQ being a greater influence than systolic blood pressure or physical activity.  The team reported that: “Lower intelligence scores were associated with increased rates of [cardiovascular disease] and total mortality at a level of magnitude greater than most established risk factors,” with lower IQ ranking second only to smoking as a predictor of death due to cardiovascular causes.