Do Loneliness and Per Capita Income Combine to Increase the Pace of Biological Aging for Black Adults across Late Middle Age?

Abstract

In a sample of 685 late middle-aged Black adults (M age at 2019 = 57.17 years), we examined the effects of loneliness and per capita income on accelerated aging using a newly developed DNA-methylation based index: the DunedinPACE. First, using linear, mixed effects regression in a growth curve framework, we found that change in DunedinPACE was dependent on age, with a linear model best fitting the data (b = 0.004, p < 0.001), indicating that average pace of change increased among older participants. A quadratic effect was also tested, but was non-significant. Beyond the effect of age, both change in loneliness (b = 0.009, p < 0.05) and change in per capita income (b = −0.016, p < 0.001) were significantly associated with change in DunedinPACE across an 11-year period, accounting for significant between person variability observed in the unconditional model. Including non-self-report indices of smoking and alcohol use did not reduce the association of loneliness or per capita income with DunedinPACE. However, change in smoking was strongly associated with change in DunedinPACE such that those reducing their smoking aged less rapidly than those continuing to smoke. In addition, both loneliness and per capita income were associated with DunedinPACE after controlling for variation in cell-types.

Loneliness, epigenetic age acceleration, and chronic health conditions.

“…This evidence is consistent with the broad literature linking loneliness to multimorbidity and other adverse health outcomes (e.g., Hajek et al, 2020; O’Sullivan et al, 2022; Wang et al, 2023) and the more limited evidence that psychosocial adversities like loneliness relate specifically to accelerated epigenetic or biological aging (Beach et al, 2022; Galkin et al, 2022). Given the robust associations between loneliness and health, there has been interest in how loneliness “gets under the skin” to become biologically embedded and methylation has emerged as theoretically plausible (Freilich, 2023b).…”

“…Research has linked loneliness to elevations in the DunedinPACE measure of EAA (Beach et al, 2022). Galkin et al (2022) linked a different measure of accelerated biological aging to other negative psychological factors (e.g., "rarely feels happy") but found no association with a binary loneliness item.…”

Racial discrimination during middle age predicts higher serum phosphorylated tau and neurofilament light chain levels a decade later: A study of aging black Americans

“… 17 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 Finally, while the current study investigated the role of racial discrimination as a stressor that contributes to the development of AD and neurodegeneration, it is likely that other race‐related stressors also increase the chances of ADRD. For example, past research has documented the effect of economic hardship, 29 , 30 neighborhood disadvantage, 31 , 32 , 33 and loneliness 29 on the development of chronic illness and accelerated aging among Black Americans. There is some evidence that these conditions, similar to racial discrimination, increase the chances of dementia as well.…”

Polygenic risk for schizophrenia, social dispositions, and pace of epigenetic aging: Results from the Young Finns Study

“…The onset of schizophrenia may have effects on epigenetic aging via multiple mechanisms. Specifically, the onset of the disorder commonly results in sick leaves, antipsychotic medications, unemployment periods, and narrowed social network that, in turn, seems to correlate with pace of epigenetic aging on the basis of preliminary evidence (Beach et al., 2022 ; Das, 2022 ; Du et al., 2022 ; Freni‐Sterrantino et al., 2022 ; Li et al., 2023 ).…”