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. 2013;35(1):98-111.
doi: 10.1093/epirev/mxs001. Epub 2012 Dec 20.

Is socioeconomic status associated with biological aging as measured by telomere length?

Tony Robertson, G David Batty, Geoff Der, Candida Fenton, Paul G Shiels, Michaela Benzeval

Is socioeconomic status associated with biological aging as measured by telomere length?

Tony Robertson et al. Epidemiol Rev. 2013.

Abstract

It has been hypothesized that one way in which lower socioeconomic status (SES) affects health is by increasing the rate of biological aging. A widely used marker of biological aging is telomere length. Telomeres are structures at the ends of chromosomes that erode with increasing cell proliferation and genetic damage. We aimed to identify, through systematic review and meta-analysis, whether lower SES (greater deprivation) is associated with shorter telomeres. Thirty-one articles, including 29 study populations, were identified. We conducted 3 meta-analyses to compare the telomere lengths of persons of high and low SES with regard to contemporaneous SES (12 study populations from 10 individual articles), education (15 study populations from 14 articles), and childhood SES (2 study populations from 2 articles). For education, there was a significant difference in telomere length between persons of high and low SES in a random-effects model (standardized mean difference (SMD) = 0.060, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.002, 0.118; P = 0.042), although a range of sensitivity analyses weakened this association. There was no evidence for an association between telomere length and contemporaneous SES (SMD = 0.104, 95% CI: -0.027, 0.236; P = 0.119) or childhood SES (SMD = -0.037, 95% CI: -0.143, 0.069; P = 0.491). These results suggest weak evidence for an association between SES (as measured by education) and biological aging (as measured by telomere length), although there was a lack of consistent findings across the SES measures investigated here.

Keywords: biological aging; review, systematic; socioeconomic status; telomere length.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Selection and exclusion of publications for a systematic review of the association between socioeconomic status (SES) and telomere length.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Results from random-effects meta-analysis for the standardized mean difference (SMD) (i.e., effect size) between low and high contemporaneous socioeconomic status (SES) categories in the relation of SES with telomere length (TL), ranked by weights applied in the analysis. Squares, SMDs for individual studies; diamond, overall SMD. Bars, 95% confidence interval (CI). (RPCI, Roswell Park Cancer Institute).
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Results from random-effects meta-analysis for the standardized mean difference (SMD) (i.e., effect size) between low and high education categories in the relation of socioeconomic status (SES) with telomere length (TL), ranked by weights applied in the analysis. Squares, SMDs for individual studies; diamond, overall SMD. Bars, 95% confidence interval (CI). (RPCI, Roswell Park Cancer Institute).
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
Results from random-effects meta-analysis for the standardized mean difference (SMD) (i.e., effect size) between low and high childhood socioeconomic status (SES) categories in the relation of SES with telomere length (TL), ranked by weights applied in the analysis. Squares, SMDs for individual studies; diamond, overall SMD. Bars, 95% confidence interval (CI).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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