More schooling translated to a slower pace of aging — a measure that translates to a 10% lower risk of dying, according to a new study.
The report published March 1 in JAMA Network Open, found that two years of additional schooling gives people a 2% to 3% slower pace when it comes to aging. That slow pace was tied to the lower mortality risk.
Researchers used an algorithm to genomic data from the Framingham Heart Study to evaluate the link between education and aging. The study was the first ever to connect educational status with biological aging pace and mortality. The algorithm the team used is known as the DunedinPACE epigenetic clock. Data from it consists of genetic information including DNA from white blood cells to measure how fast or slow a person’s body is changing as they become older.
The data spanned people from multiple generations, so it could link educational attainment in children to that of their parents. The people were enrolled starting in 1948; data came from 1,652 of their children (the offspring cohort) who were enlisted starting in 1971 and then included 1,449 people the third generation that enrolled starting in 2002. A total of 3,101 people were involved in the data review. The average age of the offspring cohort was 65.6 (and 46.2% were male) and the average age in the third generation was 45.3 (47.7% of them were male).
Healthier aging trajectories among people with more education explained almost half of the educational gradient in mortality, the researchers noted.
“People who complete more education live longer lives with better health,” the authors wrote. “New evidence suggests that these benefits operate through a slowed pace of biological aging. If so, measurements of the pace of biological aging could offer intermediate endpoints for studies of how interventions to promote education will affect healthy longevity.”
