A pivotal study found that achieving a higher education level significantly slows down the biological aging process and increases lifespan.
This important study, conducted by the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and the Robert N. Butler Columbia Center on Aging, draws on comprehensive data from the acclaimed Framingham Heart Study.
This long-term observational study, which began in 1948 and has now spanned three generations, provides valuable insight into the long-term effects of education on health and longevity.
Education: The gateway to a long lifespan
At the heart of this analysis is a new approach to understanding educational mobility, the relationship between achieving a higher level of education than one's parents and its impact on the pace of aging and mortality.
Dr. Daniel Belsky, associate professor of epidemiology at the Columbia Mailman School and Center on Aging and lead author of this study, articulates the importance of linking educational attainment to healthy longevity.
He highlights the challenges in understanding how education affects lifespan and argues that improving educational attainment may be the key to promoting healthier and longer lives. .
“It has long been known that people with high levels of education tend to live longer. But how does this happen and, importantly, how can we promote educational attainment? “There are many challenges to understanding whether interventions contribute to healthy longevity,” Belsky said.
Behind the science: Measuring the pace of aging
To quantify the pace of aging, the team utilized the DunedinPACE epigenetic clock, a cutting-edge tool developed by the Columbia researchers and their colleagues.
The algorithm measures biological aging through DNA methylation marks on white blood cells, providing a “speedometer” that shows how quickly or slowly a person ages.
Their findings show that two additional years of education can slow the pace of aging by 2 to 3 percent, which equates to about a 10 percent reduction in mortality risk and an increase in life expectancy.
The study closely analyzed data from 14,106 participants across three generations of the Framingham Heart Study.
Researchers investigated the effects of education on rapid aging and premature death by comparing educational and biological aging data, including a subset of 3,101 participants for whom detailed educational mobility and aging indicators were available. We found convincing evidence.
The impact of education on life expectancy
A particularly innovative aspect of this study was the way it controlled for family socioeconomic differences that could skew the results.
Gloria Graff, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Epidemiology and the study's lead author, discusses the importance of focusing on educational mobility and sibling comparisons to identify the true impact of education. explained.
“A major confound in studies like this is that people with different levels of education tend to come from families with different levels of educational attainment and other resources,” Graf explained.
“To address these confounds, we consider educational mobility, how much (or less) education a person has completed compared to their parents, and sibling differences in educational attainment; It focused on how much more (or less) education a person completed compared to their siblings.'' These study designs allow us to control for differences between families and isolate the effects of education. ”
The researchers found that those with upward trends in educational mobility had a slower aging process and lower mortality risk, and that this educational advantage accounted for up to half of the observed mortality gradient. discovered.
This pattern was consistent across generations and within families, highlighting the strong association between educational attainment and biological aging.
Future directions and experimental evidence
The study concludes with a call for further experimental research to validate these findings. Both Graf and Belsky highlight the potential for interventions aimed at increasing educational attainment to slow biological aging and extend life expectancy.
“Our findings support the hypothesis that interventions to promote educational attainment slow the pace of biological aging and promote longevity,” Graf said.
“Ultimately, experimental evidence is needed to confirm our findings,” Belsky added. “Epigenetic clocks like DunedinPace have the potential to enhance such experimental studies by providing results that can reflect the impact of education on healthy aging well before disease or disability develops later in life. is hidden.”
“We found that upward mobility in education is associated with both a slower pace of aging and a lower risk of mortality,” Graf said. “In fact, up to half of the educational attainment gradient in mortality that we observed was explained by healthier aging trajectories in more educated participants.”
The use of epigenetic clocks like DunedinPACE in future research will greatly advance our understanding of the role of education in promoting healthy aging and provide a promising avenue for public health strategies to promote longevity through education. There is a possibility.
Education: the key to a longer, healthier life
In summary, this fascinating and important study from Columbia University highlights the profound impact that higher education attainment has on slowing biological aging and extending lifespan.
By carefully analyzing data from the Framingham Heart Study, this study aimed to highlight the role of education beyond socio-economic benefits and promote educational attainment as a strategy for living longer and healthier lives. calls for public health intervention.
These findings make the need for further experimental research even more important and promise that educational policy can serve as a vital tool in enhancing the well-being and longevity of future generations.
The entire study was published in the journal JAMA network open.
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