The longevity of academicians: evidence from the Saxonian Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Leipzig

Abstract

This study addresses the mortality of the members of the Saxonian Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Leipzig. In fact, learned societies have been shown to present vanguard groups in the achievement of longevity. We use biographical records from the members of the Saxonian Academy of Sciences from 1846 to 2010 and compare their mortality to German life table estimates, where particularly attention is paid to the mortality differentials between eastern and western Germany. The Saxonian academicians show indeed a higher life expectancy at age 60 than the general German male population, where the latter gap has been widening since the 1950s. Comparing the life expectancy values for the Saxonian academicians to available estimates of various European learned societies yields a similar longevity, suggesting that the survival of the academicians is less determined by national mortality conditions but that academicians rather share a common health advantage.

Longevity and Education: A Demographic Perspective

“…Associations of prominent scientists represent another type of small group with exceptional longevity. For example, members of the Royal Society in the UK and of the national academies of sciences in Austria, Germany, and Russia have been shown to have unusually long life spans [15][16][17] . These individuals, who are predominantly men, may differ from the rest of the population not only in terms of their intellectual capacity, but also because they tend to have a healthier and more rational lifestyle, a somewhat higher income, and a childhood characterized by better health and living conditions, which would have fostered educational achievement.…”

“…These individuals, who are predominantly men, may differ from the rest of the population not only in terms of their intellectual capacity, but also because they tend to have a healthier and more rational lifestyle, a somewhat higher income, and a childhood characterized by better health and living conditions, which would have fostered educational achievement. The progress in mortality reductions among these scientific elites has been faster than the corresponding national averages, even though these groups initially had record-low mortality levels [17] .…”

The mathematics of ageing:

“…Indeed, the academicians' life expectancy at age 50 of around twenty years ago has still not been reached by the Austrian total population of today. It has been suggested that the exceptional longevity is not only the result of selectivity into election to membership of academicians (for an extensive discussion see Andreev et al 2011;Winkler-Dworak and Kaden 2013). According to the literature on the social gradient in mortality (e.g.…”

“…What is even more striking is that only very recently average Austrian men have reached a life expectancy value at age 50 similar to that which academicians already enjoyed around 1980. Therefore, several authors concluded that academicians indeed represent a vanguard group in the achievement of longevity (Andreev et al 2011;Winkler-Dworak and Kaden 2013), and thus, academies age more rapidly than other population groups or general populations. However, in addition to the exceptionally high and increasing longevity, many European academies have experienced an upward secular trend in the mean age at election contributing to the ageing of academies via the inflow (Riosmena et al 2012).…”

Family reconstitution and online genealogies to analyze the sex-specific differential mortality in the historical context

“…Neben den bereits genannten auf der Familienrekonstitution basierenden Werken sind dies insbesondere Publikationen, die spezifische Teilbevölkerungen untersuchen. Mit einem Fokus auf Kardinäle [ 10 ], Wissenschaftler [ 11 , 12 ] oder Mediziner [ 13 ] ist eine Untersuchung der geschlechtsspezifischen differenziellen Mortalität dabei häufig aufgrund der geringen Fallzahlen bei Frauen nicht möglich. In ihren Untersuchungen zu berühmten Persönlichkeiten können de la Croix und Licandro die Geschlechterdimension zwar berücksichtigen, müssen das Geschlecht aber über Vornamen approximieren.…”