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Familial aggregation of the aging process: biological age measured in young adult offspring as a predictor of parental mortality

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Abstract 

Measures of biological age (BA) integrate information across organ systems to quantify “biological aging,” i.e., inter-individual differences in aging-related health decline. While longevity and lifespan aggregate in families, reflecting transmission of genes and environments across generations, little is known about intergenerational continuity of biological aging or the extent to which this continuity may be modified by environmental factors. Using data from the Jerusalem Perinatal Study (JPS), we tested if differences in offspring BA were related to mortality in their parents. We measured BA using biomarker data collected from 1473 offspring during clinical exams in 2007–2009, at age 32 ± 1.1. Parental mortality was obtained from population registry data for the years 2004–2016. We fitted parametric survival models to investigate the associations between offspring BA and parental all-cause and cause-specific mortality. We explored potential differences in these relationships by socioeconomic position (SEP) and offspring sex. Participants’ BAs widely varied (SD = 6.95). Among those measured to be biologically older, parents had increased all-cause mortality (HR = 1.10, 95% CI: 1.08, 1.13), diabetes mortality (HR = 1.19, 95% CI: 1.08, 1.30), and cancer mortality (HR = 1.07, 95% CI: 1.02, 1.13). The association with all-cause mortality was stronger for families with low compared with high SEP (Pinteraction = 0.04) and for daughters as compared to sons (Pinteraction < 0.001). Using a clinical-biomarker-based BA estimate, observable by young adulthood prior to the onset of aging-related diseases, we demonstrate intergenerational continuity of the aging process. Furthermore, variation in this familial aggregation according to household socioeconomic position (SEP) at offspring birth and between families of sons and daughters proposes that the environment alters individuals’ aging trajectory set by their parents.

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Funding

The study was supported by NIH research grant no. R01HL088884, the Israeli Science Foundation grant no. 1065/16, and the Israel National Institute for Health Policy research grant no. 2018/202.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Braun School of Public Health, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel

    Ilona Shapiro, Iaroslav Youssim, Yechiel Friedlander & Hagit Hochner

  2. Department of Epidemiology and Butler Columbia Aging Center, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, New York, NY, USA

    Daniel W. Belsky

  3. Department of Psychology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel

    Salomon Israel

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  1. Ilona Shapiro
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  2. Daniel W. Belsky
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  3. Salomon Israel
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Correspondence to Hagit Hochner.

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This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of the Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center (#10–01.04.05) and participants provided informed consent for physical examination.

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Shapiro, I., Belsky, D.W., Israel, S. et al. Familial aggregation of the aging process: biological age measured in young adult offspring as a predictor of parental mortality. GeroScience 45, 901–913 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11357-022-00687-0

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