People who have at least one parent who lived past 100 have a 42 percent lower risk of dying at any given age than peers whose parents did not reach that milestone, according to a study published August 26, 2026 in JAMA Network Open. The same offspring had a 33 percent lower risk of cardiovascular disease and a 32 percent lower risk of hypertension.
On average, death among these adults was delayed by about 3 years, and the onset of high blood pressure by about 5 years, compared with controls.
The finding matters because the advantage held even after the researchers accounted for behavior. Smoking, alcohol use, exercise, diet, education and socioeconomic status were all factored in, and the protection did not disappear. That points to inherited biology working alongside the choices people make.
What the researchers actually did
The team pooled data from three long-running cohorts, the Einstein-led LonGenity study, the New England Centenarian Study at Boston University, and the UK Biobank, covering 2,319 offspring of centenarians and 2,703 controls. Participants were followed for between 16 and 29 years, depending on the cohort. This is an observational design, so it can show links but not prove cause and effect.
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The mortality reduction corresponded to a hazard ratio of 0.58, with a 95 percent confidence interval of 0.41 to 0.81. For cardiovascular disease the ratio was 0.67, and for hypertension 0.68.
Lead author Eric Reed, Ph.D., a staff scientist in medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, said in a statement that "the overall consistency of these findings across these quite different studies was especially noteworthy" and reinforces that "exceptional longevity runs in families."
Not every disease was affected
The picture was not uniformly rosy. The researchers found no protective effect on cancer risk, and results for stroke were inconsistent between the cohorts. So a centenarian parent appears to shift the odds on cardiovascular and metabolic aging, but not on every age-related condition.
The authors also flag important limits. Some health information was self-reported, and the participants were predominantly white, so the findings may not generalize to every population.
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What this means if your parents did not reach 100
Senior author Sofiya Milman, M.D., M.S., professor of medicine and genetics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, framed the wider point in a statement, saying that "studying families with exceptional longevity can provide a unique window into the biology of healthy aging."
For readers, the practical takeaway is more measured than the headline number suggests. The genetic advantage is real, but it stacks on top of behavior rather than replacing it. The same lifestyle factors the researchers controlled for, diet, exercise, not smoking, moderate drinking, remain the levers most people actually have. Prior research has linked combinations of healthy habits to years of extra life regardless of family history.
If you have concerns about your own cardiovascular or blood pressure risk, particularly if heart disease runs in your family, that is a conversation to have with your doctor rather than something to read off a study of exceptional families.
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This article is made and published by Jesper Bengtson, who may have used AI in the preparation.