IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/osf/socarx/jgmsc.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

On the authenticity of “the oldest human” Jeanne Calment

Author

Listed:
  • Zak, Nikolay
  • Gibbs, Philip

Abstract

Madame Calment’s extraordinary longevity claim has significantly influenced current estimates of human lifespan. However, recent evidence raises doubts about the authenticity of her record. We compare two competing hypotheses: the base scenario, which assumes that Jeanne’s daughter Yvonne died in 1934, and the switch scenario, which proposes that Yvonne assumed her mother’s identity in 1933. Our analysis suggests that the available evidence supports the switch scenario and contradicts the previously accepted base scenario. This study emphasizes the need to re-evaluate the evidence and highlights the importance of DNA testing (subject to approval by the French authorities). The case of Jeanne Calment was considered the gold standard for age validation. Our research shows that documentation is not always sufficient to verify cases of exceptional longevity. This has important implications for our understanding of the upper limits of human lifespan and demographic patterns in extreme ages.

Suggested Citation

  • Zak, Nikolay & Gibbs, Philip, 2023. "On the authenticity of “the oldest human” Jeanne Calment," SocArXiv jgmsc, Center for Open Science.
  • Handle: RePEc:osf:socarx:jgmsc
    DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/jgmsc
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://osf.io/download/64d38604a2be6b62d43149ab/
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.31219/osf.io/jgmsc?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. James W. Vaupel, 2010. "Biodemography of human ageing," Nature, Nature, vol. 464(7288), pages 536-542, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. D. Dragone & H. Strulik, 2017. "Human Health and Aging over an Infinite Time Horizon," Working Papers wp1104, Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna.
    2. Nicole L. Van Der Gaag & Govert Ewout Bijwaard & Joop de Beer & Luc Bonneux, 2015. "A multistate model to project elderly disability in case of limited data," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 32(3), pages 75-106.
    3. Melinda Heinz & Nicholas Cone & Grace Da Rosa & Alex J. Bishop & Tanya Finchum, 2017. "Examining Supportive Evidence for Psychosocial Theories of Aging within the Oral History Narratives of Centenarians," Societies, MDPI, vol. 7(2), pages 1-21, April.
    4. Duncan Gillespie & Meredith Trotter & Shripad Tuljapurkar, 2014. "Divergence in Age Patterns of Mortality Change Drives International Divergence in Lifespan Inequality," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 51(3), pages 1003-1017, June.
    5. Gregorio Gimenez & Ana Isabel Gil-Lacruz & Marta Gil-Lacruz, 2021. "Is Happiness Linked to Subjective Life Expectancy? A Study of Chilean Senior Citizens," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(17), pages 1-12, August.
    6. Edouard Debonneuil & Anne Eyraud-Loisel & Frédéric Planchet, 2018. "Can Pension Funds Partially Manage Longevity Risk by Investing in a Longevity Megafund?," Risks, MDPI, vol. 6(3), pages 1-27, July.
    7. Felipe Vásquez & Gibran Vita & Daniel B. Müller, 2018. "Food Security for an Aging and Heavier Population," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-19, October.
    8. Ting Li & James Anderson, 2013. "Shaping human mortality patterns through intrinsic and extrinsic vitality processes," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 28(12), pages 341-372.
    9. Vladimir Canudas-Romo & Tianyu Shen & Collin Payne, 2021. "The role of reductions in old-age mortality in old-age population growth," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 44(44), pages 1073-1084.
    10. Shulgin, Sergey & Scherbov, Sergey & Zinkina, Yulia & Novikov, Kirill, 2017. "Medical-Demographic Differentiation According to Educational Level," Working Papers 041719, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration.
    11. Finkel, Elizabeth, 2014. "Is modern farm technology a saviour or a threat?," 2014: Ethics, Efficiency and Food Security: Feeding the 9 Billion, Well, 26-28 August 2014 225570, Crawford Fund.
    12. Oliver Razum & Albrecht Jahn, 2016. "Molecular and genomic sciences in health: apply the established rules of evidence," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 61(4), pages 405-407, May.
    13. Ana Debón & Steven Haberman & Francisco Montes & Edoardo Otranto, 2021. "Do Different Models Induce Changes in Mortality Indicators? That Is a Key Question for Extending the Lee-Carter Model," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(4), pages 1-16, February.
    14. Morgan E. Levine & Eileen M. Crimmins, 2018. "Is 60 the New 50? Examining Changes in Biological Age Over the Past Two Decades," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 55(2), pages 387-402, April.
    15. Holger Strulik & Sebastian Vollmer, 2013. "Long-run trends of human aging and longevity," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 26(4), pages 1303-1323, October.
    16. S. P. Thi颡ut & T. Barnay & B. Ventelou, 2013. "Ageing, chronic conditions and the evolution of future drugs expenditure: a five-year micro-simulation from 2004 to 2029," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(13), pages 1663-1672, May.
    17. Falconi, April & Gemmill, Alison & Karasek, Deborah & Goodman, Julia & Anderson, Beth & Lee, Murray & Bellows, Benjamin & Catalano, Ralph, 2016. "Stroke-attributable death among older persons during the great recession," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 21(C), pages 56-63.
    18. Kulinskaya, Elena & Gitsels, Lisanne A. & Bakbergenuly, Ilyas & Wright, Nigel R., 2020. "Calculation of changes in life expectancy based on proportional hazards model of an intervention," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 27-35.
    19. Wen Su & Vladimir Canudas-Romo, 2024. "Cross-sectional Average Length of Life Entropy ( $${\mathcal{H}}_{\text{CAL}}$$ H CAL ): International Comparisons and Decompositions," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 40(1), pages 1-23, December.
    20. Sarah Harper, 2014. "Introduction: conceptualizing social policy for the twenty-first-century demography," Chapters, in: International Handbook on Ageing and Public Policy, chapter 1, pages 1-10, Edward Elgar Publishing.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:osf:socarx:jgmsc. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: OSF (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://arabixiv.org .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.