AFAR’s Blue Zones partnership and the data dispute
AFAR’s institute with Blue Zones brings researchers involved in the longevity data dispute into a formal partnership, while their disclosures and the accuracy of the demographic records require separate scrutiny.
AFAR and the dispute over longevity data
On October 13, the American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR) launched a longevity institute with Blue Zones. A “blue zone” is a region reported to have an unusually high proportion of people who live to 100. The company Blue Zones works with this concept, and the reliability of those records has become a subject of dispute.
Aging researcher Jay Olshansky became chair of the new institute’s advisory committee. AFAR scientific director Steven Austad joined the same committee. Both had already participated in the debate over the reliability of blue zone data. Information about the federation is available on the AFAR page on Eternal Search.
On October 20, Saul Newman, a researcher who studies errors in records of exceptionally long-lived people, answered questions on the discussion platform Reddit. He said he had declined a paid trip to Sardinia because he considered it an attempted bribe. According to Newman, Austad and Olshansky went, and Austad subsequently published a critique of his work without disclosing a conflict of interest. This is Newman’s account; taking the trip does not by itself establish misconduct.
The published disclosures differ. In a 2025 response to blue zone critics, Austad and his coauthor declared no conflicts of interest. Olshansky publicly said that the relationship did not affect the science. In an October 5 article, he disclosed consulting fees for helping establish the institute. His payments were disclosed, so a claim of concealed interests cannot be extended to both researchers.
AFAR’s partnership with Blue Zones and Olshansky’s payments give reason to examine how the participants disclose their ties to the company. Those ties matter when assessing the authors’ possible interests, but they do not by themselves show whether the ages and numbers of centenarians were recorded correctly. That question requires a separate review of the demographic data.
Open the related Eternal Search page
Sources
[1] reddit.com
[2] doi.org
[3] doi.org
[4] t.me
[5] doi.org
[6] doi.org
[7] doi.org
[8] abc.net.au
This item gives readers a concrete reason to inspect AFAR in Eternal Search: the organization created a joint institute with Blue Zones, and two members of the institute’s advisory committee have participated in the dispute over the company’s longevity data.