Dia 1

1
AGING SOCIETIES Human victory or evolutionary
trap? Fleur Thomese, Rudi Westendorp, Ralf
Kaptijn, David van Bodegom

Life History Theory and population aging
Social changes in fertility patterns shape the
evolution of population aging
Grandmother effect
Cost of fertility
Quality-quantity trade-off
Inflammatory host response may enable survival
up tp reproductive ages, but also limits
fertility and contributes to degenerative
diseases at higher ages. (1, 2). This could
become apparent in an association between
fertility and late life degenerative diseases in
an affluent population (Kaptijn, Thomese,
Westendorp, in progress)
The QQ trade-off exists, but differs in more and
less affluent contexts. Fitness effects are
mixed. Ghana Greater fertility increases child
mortality (3, 4) Netherlands Greater fertility
decreases socioeconomic position and partner
quality of children. But it increases
childrens fertility (5)
Grandmothers effect on fitness occurs when
other (kin) support is absent. Ghana no effect
of grandmothers on infant survival
(6) Netherlands positive effect of
grandparents babysitting on childrens fertility
(7) Gender preferences yet to be analysed.

• Conclusion an interdisicplinary adventure.
• Sociologists, epidemiologists, geneticist
  demographer use Life History Theory as heuristic
  framework and joint platform.
• The interdisciplinary gain (for all) less
  genetic determinism better insight in specific
  environmental pressures that guide human
  biological selection

• References
• Van Bodegom D, May L, Meij JJ, Westendorp RGJ.
  Regulation of human life histories the role of
  the inflammatory host response. Ann N Y Acad Sci.
  2007 Apr110084-97.
• May, L, Kuningas M, Van Bodegom D, Meij JJ,
  Frolich M, Slagboom PE, Mantovani A. Westendorp
  RJG.Genetic variation in Pentraxin (PTX)-3 gene
  associates with PTX3 production and female
  fertility. Submitted.
• Meij JJ, Van Bodegom D, Zziem JB, Amankwa J,
  Polderman M, Kirkwood TBL, De Craen AJM, Zwaan
  BJ, Westendorp RGJ. Qualityquantity trade-off of
  human offspring under adverse environmental
  conditions. J of Evolutionary Biology,22, 2009
  1014-1023
• Van Bodegom D, May, L, Kaptijn R, Thomese F,
  Kuningas M, Westendorp RGJ. Socioeconomic status
  by rapid appraisal is highly correlated to
  mortality in rural Africa. Transactions of the
  royal society of tropical medicine and hygiene
  103, 2009 796-800.
• Kaptijn R, Thomese F, Van Tilburg TG, Liefbroer
  A, Deeg DJH. Low fertility in contemporary humans
  and the mate value of their children sex
  specific effects on social status indicators.
  Evolution and human Behavior, in press.
• Van Bodegom D, Rozing M, May L, Kuningas M,
  Thomese F, Meij JJ, Westendorp RJG. When
  Grandmothers matter. Gerontology in press.
• Kaptijn R, Thomese F, Van Tilburg TG, Liefbroer
  A. How grandparents matter. Support for the
  cooperative breeding hypothesis in a contemporary
  Dutch population.Submitted Human Nature.