SynthesisThe journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences2023
Cross-National and Cross-Generational Evidence That Educational Attainment May Slow the Pace of Aging in European-Descent Individuals.
Synthesis in The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers.
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Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 25 citations in OpenAlex.
- Does sex moderate health and Alzheimer's disease risk tied to early educational experiences? The reducing inequities through social and educational change follow-up in early adulthood extension study protocol.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2026Article
- Moderating effects of educational inequality on education polygenic scores, attained education and dementia-risk relationships.SSM - population health · 2026Article
- Eight decades of follow-up link life course exposures to proteomic organ ageing and longevity.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2025Article
- Remarkable concordance in associations between epigenetic clocks and health behaviors across three countries.Social science & medicine (1982) · 2025Article
- Linked emergence of racial disparities in mental health and epigenetic biological aging across childhood and adolescence.Molecular psychiatry · 2025Article
- Lifespan Fluidity and Its Biological Limitations in Socio-Economic Health Differences.Journal of the American Geriatrics Society · 2025Article
- Improving Cardiovascular Health Through the Consideration of Social Factors in Genetics and Genomics Research: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association.Circulation. Cardiovascular quality and outcomes · 2025Review
- Article
- Psychosocial Disadvantage During Childhood and Midlife Health: NIMHD Social Epigenomics Program.JAMA network open · 2024Article
- Aging, Race, and Health Disparities: Recommendations From the Research Centers Collaborative Network.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2024Article
- New Directions in Geroscience: Integrating Social and Behavioral Drivers of Biological Aging.Psychosomatic medicine · 2024Review
- Utilizing epigenetics to study the shared nature of development and biological aging across the lifespan.NPJ science of learning · 2024Review
- Educational Mobility, Pace of Aging, and Lifespan Among Participants in the Framingham Heart Study.JAMA network open · 2024Article
- Consequences of heterogeneity in aging: parental age at death predicts midlife all-cause mortality and hospitalization in a Swedish national birth cohort.BMC geriatrics · 2024Article
- Dissecting Alzheimer's Disease Risk in Asian American Elders: A Classification and Regression Tree Approach.Journal of Alzheimer's disease reports · 2024Article
- Poverty Status at Birth Predicts Epigenetic Changes at Age 15.Journal of biomedical and life sciences · 2024Article
- Exploring the causal association between epigenetic clocks and menopause age: insights from a bidirectional Mendelian randomization study.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2024Article
- Race, Poverty Status at Birth, and DNA Methylation of Youth at Age 15.Global journal of epidemiology and infectious disease · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
15 authors at 8 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
objectivesIndividuals 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.
methodsWe 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.
resultsAcross 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.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.