ArticlePsychosomatic medicine2009
IQ, socioeconomic status, and early death: The US National Longitudinal Survey of Youth.
Article in Psychosomatic medicine, 2009. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
19 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Hispanic mortality paradox: a systematic review and meta-analysis of the longitudinal literature.American journal of public health · 2013Pooled it
- Intelligence in youth and all-cause-mortality: systematic review with meta-analysis.International journal of epidemiology · 2011Pooled it
- Adverse Childhood Experiences, Neurocognitive Functions, and Long-Term Mortality Risk.JAMA network open · 2025Article
- Mental health among bereaved youth in the ALSPAC birth cohort: Consideration of early sociodemographic precursors, cognitive ability, and type of loss.Development and psychopathology · 2023Article
- Association between early child development trajectories and adult cognitive function in a 50-year longitudinal study in Guatemala.BMJ open · 2021Article
- Observational
- Public health and chronic low chlordecone exposures in Guadeloupe; Part 2: Health impacts, and benefits of prevention.Environmental health : a global access science source · 2016Article
- Socioeconomic disadvantage and neural development from infancy through early childhood.International journal of epidemiology · 2015Article
- The pediatric template of brain perfusion.Scientific data · 2015Article
- Childhood adversity and neural development: deprivation and threat as distinct dimensions of early experience.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2014Review
- What are the links between maternal social status, hippocampal function, and HPA axis function in children?Developmental science · 2013Article
- Joint consideration of distal and proximal predictors of premature mortality among serious juvenile offenders.The Journal of adolescent health : official publication of the Society for Adolescent Medicine · 2013Article
- Influence of maternal and paternal IQ on offspring health and health behaviours: evidence for some trans-generational associations using the 1958 British birth cohort study.European psychiatry : the journal of the Association of European Psychiatrists · 2013Article
- Systems integrity in health and aging - an animal model approach.Longevity & healthspan · 2013Article
- Article
- Childhood determinants of adult psychiatric disorder.Clinical practice and epidemiology in mental health : CP & EMH · 2013Article
- The association of cognitive performance with mental health and physical functioning strengthens with age: the Whitehall II cohort study.Psychological medicine · 2010Article
- Honeybee associative learning performance and metabolic stress resilience are positively associated.PloS one · 2010Article
- Intelligence in youth and health at age 50.IntelligenceArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo assess whether the association between cognitive ability (IQ) and early mortality is mediated by socioeconomic status (SES) or whether the association between SES and mortality reflects a spurious association caused by IQ.
methodsThe participants were from the US National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (n = 11,321). IQ was assessed at age 16 to 23 years and the participants were followed up to 40 to 47 years of age.
resultsControlling for sex, birth year, race/ethnicity, baseline health, and parental education, higher IQ was associated with lower probability of death (odds ratio (OR) per 1-standard deviation increase in IQ = 0.78, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.66, 0.91). This association disappeared (OR = 0.99, 95% CI = 0.81, 1.20) when adjusted for education and household income. Adjustment for IQ had no effect on the association between SES and mortality. These findings were similar in Hispanic, Black, and White/other participants and in women and men. Parental education moderated the IQ-mortality association so that this association was not observed in participants with low parental education.
conclusionsLow IQ predicts early mortality in the US population and this association is largely explained by SES. The results do not support the alternative hypothesis that the socioeconomic gradient in early mortality would reflect IQ differences.
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