Commentary: Pre-morbid IQ and later health—the rapidly evolving field of cognitive epidemiology

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Abstract
The new, specialist field of cognitive epidemiology is growing.1 Scores on mental ability tests (IQ-type tests) are replicable predictors of some health outcomes, especially death from all causes.2 The first empirical inkling of such an association was probably obtained in 1933, when a moderate-sized relationship was reported between the average IQ scores of children in New York city districts and the health of their residents, as indexed by death rates (r = −0.43; Figure 1).3 Several decades later the association was replicated at the level of the individual when male Australian Vietnam War veterans with higher mental test scores were shown to experience lower rates of total mortality and motor vehicle accidents.4,5 More recently, the follow-up studies of the Scottish Mental Survey of 1932 showed an association between IQ at age 11 years and survival to ∼80 years.6,7

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