Emotional Distress Links Disadvantaged Neighborhoods to Accelerated Biological Aging

A recent study has identified a significant link between living in disadvantaged neighborhoods and biological symptoms of accelerated aging. Researchers found that emotional distress accounts for a substantial portion of these effects.

Study Overview

The findings support a "chains-of-risk" framework, suggesting that prolonged exposure to contextual socioeconomic disadvantage accelerates an individual's biological age. This effect is partly mediated by increases in psychological symptoms.

The findings support a "chains-of-risk" framework, suggesting that prolonged exposure to contextual socioeconomic disadvantage accelerates an individual's biological age.

Methodology

The study included over 1,440 individuals living in Wisconsin. It uniquely explored two factors: cumulative exposure to neighborhood disadvantage and overall emotional distress, which had not been extensively covered in prior research.

Researchers utilized three epigenetic "clocks"—PhenoAge, GrimAge, and Dunedin Pace of Aging—to measure an individual's biological age based on epigenetic changes in the genome.

Six census-tract socioeconomic indicators, such as median household income and the percentage of residents with a high school education or less, were used to characterize neighborhood disadvantage. The team created a composite measure of cumulative exposure by tracking each participant's residential history since the age of 18, sometimes spanning up to five decades.

Psychological symptoms were measured using a 21-item scale assessing depression, anxiety, and stress, which were combined into an "overall distress" score.

Key Findings

Cumulative neighborhood disadvantage was a significant predictor of greater overall distress across all three models. It also predicted accelerated aging across all three clocks, both directly and indirectly, through increases in distress.

• Quantified Impact: One-unit increases in cumulative disadvantage were associated with approximately 0.187 and 0.219 additional years of age acceleration by the PhenoAge and GrimAge clocks, respectively. A 0.006 increase in the pace of aging was observed by the Dunedin PACE.

• Role of Distress: Approximately 10% to 13% of the effect of neighborhood disadvantage on accelerated aging operated through overall distress.

Approximately 10% to 13% of the effect of neighborhood disadvantage on accelerated aging operated through overall distress.

• Anxiety as a Mediator: When analyzing individual psychological symptoms, anxiety appeared to be the most significant mediator for the indirect effect on accelerated aging.

Authorship and Publication

The research was published in The Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences.

Contributing authors included Christina Kamis from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Wei Xu from the Medical College of Wisconsin, Michal Engelman and Kristen Malecki from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and University of Illinois Chicago School of Public Health, respectively, along with Amy Schultz and Joseph Clark.