Cross-National and Cross-Generational Evidence That Educational Attainment May Slow the Pace of Aging in European-Descent Individuals
Year: 2023
Type: review
Abstract: OBJECTIVES: Individuals with more education are at lower risk of developing multiple, different age-related diseases than their less-educated peers. A reason for this might be that individuals with more education age slower. There are 2 complications in testing this hypothesis. First, there exists no definitive measure of biological aging. Second, shared genetic factors contribute toward both lower educational attainment and the development of age-related diseases. Here, we tested whether the protective effect of educational attainment was associated with the pace of aging after accounting for genetic factors. METHODS: We examined data from 5 studies together totaling almost 17,000 individuals with European ancestry born in different countries during different historical periods, ranging in age from 16 to 98 years old. To assess the pace of aging, we used DunedinPACE, a DNA methylation algorithm that reflects an individual's rate of aging and predicts age-related decline and Alzheimer's disease and related disorders. To assess genetic factors related to education, we created a polygenic score based on the results of a genome-wide association study of educational attainment. RESULTS: Across the 5 studies, and across the life span, higher educational attainment was associated with a slower pace of aging even after accounting for genetic factors (meta-analysis effect size = -0.20; 95% confidence interval [CI]: -0.30 to -0.10; p = .006). Further, this effect persisted after taking into account tobacco smoking (meta-analysis effect size = -0.13; 95% CI: -0.21 to -0.05; p = .01). DISCUSSION: These results indicate that higher levels of education have positive effects on the pace of aging, and that the benefits can be realized irrespective of individuals' genetics.
Language: English
Subfield: Molecular Biology
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
Funders: North Carolina Biotechnology Center, American Asthma Foundation, National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression, University of Essex, Wellcome Trust, Scottish Government, Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, Scottish Funding Council, Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, Jacobs Foundation, National Institutes of Health, Chief Scientist Office, Scottish Government Health and Social Care Directorate, Medical Research Council, Economic and Social Research Council, National Institute on Aging, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
Awards: G1049901796, G1151036099, Biological Underpinnings of Socioeconomic Differentials in Health and Mortality, G1289651063, G1748805038, G2039281854, G2437620908, G2462977380, G259633682, Exploiting genomic approaches to identify the environmental basis of depression, G2985766253, Genetic analysis of the Dutch Hunger Winter Families Study to Boost Rigor and Robustness for Testing In-Utero Famine Effects on Aging-Related Health Conditions and Biological Aging, Generation Scotland:NextGenScot, Generation Scotland:NextGenScot, Neuropsychological and genomic signatures of violence exposure in childhood, G4036427723, Exploiting genomic approaches to identify the environmental basis of depression, G412938763, Stratifying Resilience and Depression Longitudinally (STRADL), G4312987371, G4558443914, G4559153192, G4883962940, G4907327099, Genomic Analysis of the CALERIE Trial to Generate New Knowledge for Geroscience, G5277938394, G5306657525, G5464181236, G5701737369, Stratifying Resilience and Depression Longitudinally (STRADL), G6637449936, G7274218533, G729635221, G7304791810, Midlife Pace of Aging in the Dunedin Study, G7612986051, G8222903824, G839044655, G8724570043, G8877605831, G8968736666, USC/UCLA Center on Biodemography and Population Health, Health and Retirement Study: Yrs 35-40, Aging in 1000 healthy midlife adults: Phase 52 of the Dunedin Study, The MyGoals for Healthy Aging Multi-Center Randomized Controlled Trial, Validating a 3rd-generation methylation measure of accelerated aging: DunedinPoAm4x
OpenAlex ID: W4365483557