Poverty and racism speed biological aging, major study finds

Poverty, racism, and other forms of social disadvantage leave measurable traces on human biology, speeding up the rate at which the body ages — and the effects begin in childhood, according to a sweeping new study published Friday in Nature Human Behaviour.nature

The meta-analysis, led by the Biosocial team at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin and researchers at Columbia University in New York, synthesized 1,065 effect sizes from 140 studies involving 65,919 participants ranging from newborns to 86-year-olds. The findings offer what the researchers describe as the most comprehensive assessment to date of how social conditions relate to epigenetic measures of biological aging.mpib-berlin.mpg+1

How Social Conditions Get Under the Skin

Epigenetic clocks analyze patterns of chemical marks on DNA to estimate a person's biological age or the pace at which their body is deteriorating. The study found that people experiencing social disadvantage consistently show faster biological aging across these measures — but not all clocks capture the relationship equally.mpib-berlin.mpg+1

First-generation clocks, designed primarily to estimate chronological age, showed only weak associations with socioeconomic conditions. Second-generation clocks, which reflect health and mortality risk, and third-generation clocks, which measure the pace of aging itself, showed substantially stronger links to poverty and discrimination. The finding has practical implications for researchers selecting tools to study how environments shape health.myscience+1

Racial Disparities and Childhood Effects

In U.S.-based studies included in the analysis, Black participants showed faster biological aging than white participants when measured with the newer clocks. Differences between Latinx and white participants were also observed, though somewhat smaller. The researchers noted that adults who grew up in disadvantaged families tend to age faster biologically later in life, even decades after childhood exposures.mpib-berlin.mpg

Perhaps most striking, evidence of accelerated aging associated with social disadvantage was already visible in children, indicating that inequality can shape biology from a young age.eurekalert+1

Toward Intervention

The team, led by co-first authors Y. E. Willems and A. D. Rezaki with senior author L. Raffington, suggests the findings could help scientists evaluate whether interventions — such as poverty reduction programs or education policies — can slow biological aging and improve long-term health outcomes. The study draws on research from 23 countries, underscoring that the biological toll of social inequality is not confined to any single population or geography.myscience+1