Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, Vol 51, Issue 4 S201-S208, Copyright © 1996 by The Gerontological Society of America
Trends in mortality in older women: findings from the Nun Study
SM Butler and DA Snowdon
Department of Statistics, University of Kentucky, USA.
During this century, Catholic sisters have remained constant in many
life-style characteristics such as smoking and reproduction (Catholic
sisters are nonsmoking and nulliparous). It is therefore of interest to
compare trends in the health of elderly Catholic sisters to those in the
general population. In this study, mortality rates at ages 50 to 84 years
in a population of 2,573 Catholic sisters were compared to those in the
general population during the years 1965 to 1989. The Catholic sisters had
a mortality advantage that increased dramatically over calendar time, and
from early to more recent birth cohorts. This coincided with increases in
smoking by U.S. women, while during the same time period the Catholic
sisters had very low rates of mortality from smoking-related diseases. The
Catholic sisters had high rates of mortality from cancers of the breast and
reproductive organs, suggesting an effect of nulliparity manifested in
older women.
