The more you learn, the longer you live

Highly educated people may experience slower aging. Photo: Publichealth

According to a new study at the Robert N. Butler Columbia Center on Aging and the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University in the US, people who achieve higher levels of education tend to age more slowly and live longer than their peers. the others.

The above data comes from participants in the Framingham Heart Study - a long-term study of the cardiovascular system conducted on residents of the town of Framingham, Massachusetts (USA) since 1948 and spanning 3 generations.

This is the first analysis to link education levels with biological aging rates and mortality rates. The study's lead author is Daniel Belsky, PhD, Associate Professor of Epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health.

Mr. Daniel Belsky said that, for a long time, we have known that people with higher education tend to live longer, but there are many challenges in understanding how that happens. What matters is whether interventions aimed at promoting educational attainment contribute to improved life expectancy and health?

Measure the aging rate

To measure the rate of aging, the researchers applied an algorithm called the DunedinPACE epigenetic clock to genomic data collected by the Framingham Heart Study.

The latest findings show that, according to the DunedinPACE epigenetic clock, two extra years of schooling slows aging by 2 to 3%. According to Dr. Daniel Belsky's previous research on DunedinPACE's association with mortality risk, this slowing of aging corresponds to an approximately 10% reduction in mortality risk in the Framingham Heart Study.

DunedinPACE was developed by researchers at Columbia and reported in January 2022. DunedinPACE (acronym for Pace of Aging Compiled from the Epigenome), measured from a blood test. It acts like a gauge of how quickly a person's body is changing as they age.

Biological aging refers to the accumulation of molecular changes that gradually weaken the integrity and resilience of cells, tissues and organs as we age. Columbia researchers used data from 14,106 people in the Framingham Heart Study spanning three generations to link data on children's educational attainment with that of their parents.

They then used data from a small group of participants who provided blood samples during data collection to calculate biological aging rates using the DunedinPACE epigenetic clock.

In the preliminary analysis, the researchers examined the association between education level, aging and mortality in a subgroup of 3,101 participants in whom education level and aging speed.

For 2,437 participants with siblings, the researchers also tested whether differences in educational attainment between siblings were associated with differences in aging rates.

Education can promote longevity

Doctoral student Gloria Graf in the Department of Epidemiology supervised by Mr. Belsky is also the first author of the above study. A major problem in studies like this, she explains, is that people with different levels of education tend to come from families with different educational backgrounds and resources.

To solve the above problems, they focus on the difference in a person's educational level compared to their parents and siblings. These study designs control for differences between families and allow them to isolate the effects of education.

By combining the above study designs with the new DunedinPACE epigenetic clock, researchers were able to test how education affects the rate of aging.

Then, by linking education levels and aging rate data with the participants' lifespan records, the team was able to determine whether slower aging rates increased longevity in the population. people with higher education or not.

Ms. Gloria Graf emphasized, 'our findings support the hypothesis that interventions aimed at promoting educational attainment will slow the rate of biological aging and promote longevity'.

Mr Belsky added, 'experimental evidence is needed to confirm our findings'. According to him, epigenetic clocks like DunedinPace have the potential to enhance experimental studies like the above by providing results that can reflect the impact of level of education on healthy aging before the onset of illness. illness and disability in later life.

Increasing educational attainment is associated with both slower aging and a reduced risk of death, said Gloria Graf. People with healthy aging were often among the better educated participants.

This association is similar across generations and between siblings: Siblings with more education tend to age more slowly than siblings with less education.

Marvin Fry

Update 01 April 2024