Amerindian ancestry and extended longevity in Nicoya, Costa Rica

Abstract

The increase in life expectancy, as a result of the reduction of preventable causes of mortality, represents—almost globally—one of the great legacies of the twentieth century for public health. Among its outcomes are a demographic transition to older populations and its concomitant epidemiological transition which demand transformations to both health and social institutions, that is, legal, economic, anthropological, spiritual, and so forth (Bengtson & Ssttersten, 2016; Kinsella, 2000).

Strong evidence shows that extended longevity has also a genetic component (Brooks‐Wilson, 2013; Dato et al., 2017). Candidate gene studies and genome‐wide association studies (GWAS) have identified genetic variants associated with human longevity (Sebastiani et al., 2013, 2017; Yashin et al., 2010). Most of these studies have been conducted in populations of European or East‐Asian ancestry, and little is known of the genetic contribution to longevity in Hispanic populations.

In Costa Rica, nonagenarian males have the highest life expectancy of the world (Rosero‐Bixby, 2008), particularly in the Nicoya region, at the province of Guanacaste, where the probability of 60‐year‐old males becoming centenarian is seven times that of the Japanese males (Rosero‐Bixby et al., 2013). This population is the product of an admixture process initiated during colonial times that produced a blend of Amerindian—mostly Mesoamerican (Hoopes and Fonseca‐Zamora, 2003; Reich et al., 2012), European—mainly Spaniard, and sub‐Saharan African genes (Lohse, 2005; Morera et al., 2003; Segura‐Wang et al., 2010; Wang et al., 2010). Thus, the Nicoyan population offers a unique opportunity to evaluate the association of Amerindian ancestry with longevity.