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Death rates for 80+-year-olds are now half of what they were after WWII. The chance of living past 90 years has gone up by roughly 30% per decade for people born in Denmark in 1895, 1905, and 1915 - and the later cohorts are functioning better physically and cognitively. Centenarians are on average functioning physically and cognitively as well as 92-93-year-olds due to selective mortality. A steep increase in the frequency of hospitalization and surgical procedure among 85-100-year-olds is occurring, but there is a lack of knowledge about treatment effects and side effects among the oldest-old.

Danes are by far the most content citizens in the EU. We test a number of (im)plausible hypotheses and find that the solid depth of Danish well-being is multifactorial, but with two decisive factors: winning the 1992 European Championship in football and having constantly low (and undoubtedly realistic) expectations for the coming year. With an undoubtedly disappointing 2007 in store, we do not wish to foster false hopes. However, some tepid comfort might perhaps be taken from the fact that if you lower your expectations enough, you might feel a bit better next New Year.

Introduction: Long-lived individuals are rare and may be selected in part for the genetic factors that promote successful ageing. The children of long-lived parents may therefore age more successfully than the children of short-lived parents., Material and Methods: We used three major cross-sectional, population-based surveys to study the association of parental longevity with successful ageing in offspring. The measures of ageing were hand-grip strength, cognitive performance (mini mental state examination (MMSE) and a cognitive composite score), self-reported diseases, and self-rated health., Results: For every additional ten years the parents lived, grip strength increased by 0.32 kg (95% CI = 0.00-0.63), the MMSE score by 0.20 points (95% CI = 0.03-0.37), and cognitive composite score by 0.24 points (95% CI = 0.07-0.40). A ten-year increment of parental life was associated with a reduction by approximately 0.20 in the adjusted OR for having each of the following conditions: diabetes, hypertension, ischaemic heart disease, heart failure, stroke, or fair, poor or very poor self-rated health. Almost all the effects were seen solely in the cohort of 70+ year-olds, but not in the middle-aged or nonagenarians., Discussion: Parental life span is positively associated with physical and cognitive functioning and avoidance of some of the common chronic diseases. However, overall the effects are small and are seen in the elderly, but not in the middle-aged or the very old.

The aim of this study was to describe the demography of centenarians in Denmark in the period 1775-1995. The prevalence of centenarians increased from about 1-2 pr. million in the last half of the 1800s to about 80 pr. million in 1995, especially among women since 1950 leading to a female/male-ratio of three to one. A total of 4292 centenarian deaths were found reported in different sources. The number of reported centenarian deaths was found to be much higher in the first half than in the last half of the 1800s, especially among men and among 105+ year-old: A through examination of 275 reported centenarian deaths on the Island of Funen from before 1900 indicates that this most plausibly was due to age-exaggeration and lack of validation of the reported ages before 1850. This was supported by a backward extrapolation of regression estimates based on the reported number in the period 1870-1925, which showed a much lower estimated number of centenarians than reported in the first half of the 1800s, indicating an emergence of centenarians after 1780. The probability of becoming a centenarian only first increased substantially for cohorts born after 1860. The reduction of mortality among the oldest old in the last decades has created a new generation of very old people. The proportion of centenarians can therefore be considered as an indicator of earlier changes in lifestyle and care for elderly.

According to the foetal-origins hypothesis the risk of adult morbidity and mortality is heightened by intrauterine growth retardation. Twins, and in particular monozygotic twins, experience growth retardation in utero. A total of 8495 twin individuals born 1870-1900 in Denmark were followed through 1991 and death rates were calculated on a cohort basis. Deaths rates for twins and the general population were not significantly different except for females aged 60-89: mortality for female twins in this age group was 1.14 times (SE 0.03) higher than the general population. Female dizygotic twins experienced death rates 1.77 times (SE 0.18) higher than monozygotic twins at ages 30-59. Otherwise, mortality for monozygotic and dizygotic twins did not consistently differ after age six. The findings in the present study suggest that the foetal-origins hypothesis is not true for the intrauterine growth retardation experienced by twins.