Research using Understanding Society has shown that having a disadvantaged socio-economic position throughout one’s life is linked to having a biological age greater than one’s chronological age – known as age acceleration.
The research used data from Waves 2 and 3 of Understanding Society, in which nurses took blood samples from around 20,000 adults in the study, as well as other health measurements, including blood pressure, weight, height, and lung function. DNA was extracted from some of the blood samples for a process known as methylation, which predicts a person’s age. Although this biological age is usually close to people’s actual age, some people come in ‘older’ than their actual age, and some ‘younger’. Those who are older are said to show ‘age acceleration’, which is linked to illness and a shorter life.
Research has shown a link between the conditions of our early lives and age acceleration – especially in those who disadvantaged throughout life, compared to those who have advantages throughout their lives. This new research wanted to understand the role of social mobility, and whether being upwardly or downwardly mobile significantly changed people’s age acceleration.
The results showed that social position in early life was linked to age acceleration in adulthood. Depending on the method of measuring age acceleration, the researchers also found that age acceleration was linked to social position in early and later life – with both stages contributing equally – and upward mobility was linked to greater age acceleration compared to those who are disadvantaged throughout their lives in the oldest age group. We speculate that early life disadvantage in older people leaves its mark on biology.
Meena Kumari, Understanding Society’s Associate Director, Health, Biomarkers and Genetics, and one of the authors of the research, says: “We found that disadvantaged social position in early life and adulthood is linked to age acceleration in adulthood. Social mobility, though, was not a particularly important factor, so disadvantage throughout life is important for our long-term health.”
The research is published in Nature – Scientific Reports
Health and wellbeingSocial mobility
