The British Journal of Psychiatry (2008) 193: 461-465. doi: 10.1192/bjp.bp.107.037424
© 2008 The Royal College of Psychiatrists
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IQ in early adulthood and later risk of death by homicide: cohort study of 1 million men

G. David Batty, PhD

MRC Social & Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, and MRC Centre for Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemiology, Department of Psychology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK

Ian J. Deary, PhD

Department of Psychology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK

Anders Tengstrom, PhD

Section of Alcohol and Drug Dependence, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden

Finn Rasmussen, PhD

Child and Adolescent Public Health Epidemiology Group, Department of Public Health Sciences, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden

Correspondence: F. Rasmussen, Child and Adolescent Public Health Epidemiology Group, Department of Public Health Sciences, Karolinska Institute, SE-17176 Stockholm, Sweden. Email: finn.rasmussen{at}ki.se

Declaration of interest

None. Funding detailed in Acknowledgements.

Background

Risk factors for homicide are emerging; however, the predictive value of IQ, for which there is a strong prima facie case, has yet to be examined.

Aims

To examine the association between IQ and risk of death by homicide.

Method

A cohort of 968 846 men, aged 18–19 years, were administered an IQ test battery at military conscription and then followed for mortality experience over two decades.

Results

There were 191 deaths due to homicide during follow-up. In age-adjusted analyses, a high total IQ test score was associated with a reduced rate of homicide (hazard ratio (HR) per standard deviation increase in IQ score=0.49, 95% CI 0.42–0.57). A step-wise gradient was apparent across the three IQ groups (P-value for trend <0.001). After adjustment for indicators of socio-economic position and illness at conscription, this gradient was marginally attenuated (HR=0.57, 95% CI 0.49–0.67).

Conclusions

High IQ test scores in early adulthood were associated with a reduced risk of death by homicide.


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G. D. Batty, C. R. Gale, P. Tynelius, I. J. Deary, and F. Rasmussen
IQ in Early Adulthood, Socioeconomic Position, and Unintentional Injury Mortality by Middle Age: A Cohort Study of More Than 1 Million Swedish Men
Am. J. Epidemiol., March 1, 2009; 169(5): 606 - 615.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]