Having a higher IQ offers many advantages in society. And a group of Scottish investigators also reported that a high IQ is associated with a longer life expectancy.

The study, which was published in the British Medical Journal, included more than 75,000 volunteers who were born in 1936 and took a standardized intelligence test in 1947. Cause of death was confirmed in more than 25,000 of them.

The researchers discovered that children with lower IQ scores had a greater likelihood of dying from heart disease, stroke, respiratory disease, lung cancer, and stomach cancer as adults. All of these diseases are associated with smoking, and the study showed no association between cancers unrelated to smoking and mortality.

Although they didn’t prove it, the investigators suspect that more intelligent people have greater awareness of lifestyle habits such as smoking, which can shorten life expectancy.