typologies of extreme longevity myths类型学的极端长寿神话.pdf

Hindawi Publishing Corporation Current Gerontology and Geriatrics Research Volume 2010, Article ID 423087, 12 pages doi:10.1155/2010/423087 Research Article Typologies of Extreme Longevity Myths Robert D. Young,1 Bertrand Desjardins,2 Kirsten McLaughlin,1 Michel Poulain,3 and Thomas T. Perls1 1 New England Centenarian Study, Geriatrics Division, Department of Medicine, Boston University Medical Center, Boston, MA 02493, USA 2 Departement de Demographie, Universite de Montreal, Montreal, QC, Canada H3C 3J7 ´ ´ ´ ´ ´ 3 FNRS, IACCHOS, Universite Catholique de Louvain, 6000 Charleroi, Belgium ´ Correspondence should be addressed to Thomas T. Perls, thperls@ Received 13 April 2010; Revised 10 September 2010; Accepted 28 December 2010 Academic Editor: Donald Craig Willcox Copyright © 2010 Robert D. Young et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Purpose. Political, national, religious, and other motivations have led the media and even scientists to errantly accept extreme longevity claims prima facie. We describe various causes of false claims of extraordinary longevity. Design and Methods. American Social Security Death Index files for the period 1980–2009 were queried for individuals with birth and death dates yielding ages 110+ years of age. Frequency was compared to a list of age-validated supercentenarians maintained by the Gerontology Research Group who died during the same time period. Age claims of 110+ years and the age validation experiences of the auth