A Biological Age Model Designed for Health Promotion Interventions: Protocol for an Interdisciplinary Study for Model Development

Abstract

Background Actions to improve healthy aging and delay morbidity are crucial, given the global aging population. We believe that biological age estimation can help promote the health of the general population. Biological age reflects the heterogeneity in functional status and vulnerability to disease that chronological age cannot. Thus, biological age assessment is a tool that provides an intuitively meaningful outcome for the general population, and as such, facilitates our understanding of the extent to which lifestyle can increase health span. Objective This interdisciplinary study intends to develop a biological age model and explore its usefulness. Methods The model development comprised three consecutive phases: (1) conducting a cross-sectional study to gather candidate biomarkers from 100 individuals representing normal healthy aging people (the derivation cohort); (2) estimating the biological age using principal component analysis; and (3) testing the clinical use of the model in a validation cohort of overweight adults attending a lifestyle intervention course. Results We completed the data collection and analysis of the cross-sectional study, and the initial results of the principal component analysis are ready. Interpretation and refinement of the model is ongoing. Recruitment to the validation cohort is forthcoming. We expect the results to be published by December 2021. Conclusions We expect the biological age model to be a useful indicator of disease risk and metabolic risk, and further research should focus on validating the model on a larger scale. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03680768, https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03680768 (Phase 1 study); NCT04279366 https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04279366 (Phase 3 study). International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID) DERR1-10.2196/19209

A Model for Estimating Biological Age From Physiological Biomarkers of Healthy Aging: Cross-sectional Study

“…We selected 9 biomarkers listed in Table 3 and applied PCA to estimate individual BA. The 9 biomarkers represent metabolic health (HDL, TC, and adiponectin) and bodily functions (FEV 1 , MAP, and suPAR), and include very important clinical age–related variables (VO 2max , HbA 1c , and waist circumference) [ 28 ]. We found no difference between BAc and CA in the healthy reference group of women and men, and the BA model for both women and men showed a high linear relationship with CA.…”

“…Further, a better VO 2max was found to attenuate the risks related to overweight and obesity [ 53 , 54 ]. The majority (41/51, 80%, and 46/49, 94%, of women and men, respectively) of the study participants adhered to the recommendations of a minimum of 150 minutes/week of moderate to vigorous physical activity and had a moderate to high cardiorespiratory fitness level [ 28 ]. Therefore, we did not use high BMI as exclusion criteria.…”

“…In addition, this panel of biomarkers covers multiple areas of human function, and they are suitable to study in humans in vivo. For a more comprehensive description of the rationale for including these 32 variables as candidate biomarkers, we refer to our protocol paper (Clinical Trial number: NCT03680768) [ 28 ].…”

Biological Age Estimation Based on Heart Rate Variability: A Pilot Study

“…The optimal methods for determining biological age should focus on early signs of aging, distinguishing healthy and unhealthy aging independently of background diseases. Reproducibility, safety, technical simplicity, and availability are other features of these methods [12]. The assessment of cognitive aspects of maintaining functional independence for socially active life could also be an important feature [12].…”

“…Reproducibility, safety, technical simplicity, and availability are other features of these methods [12]. The assessment of cognitive aspects of maintaining functional independence for socially active life could also be an important feature [12].…”