Evidence of accelerated aging among African Americans and its implications for mortality - PubMed (original) (raw)

Evidence of accelerated aging among African Americans and its implications for mortality

M E Levine et al. Soc Sci Med. 2014 Oct.

Abstract

Blacks experience morbidity and mortality earlier in the life course compared to whites. Such premature declines in health may be indicative of an acceleration of the aging process. The current study uses data on 7644 black and white participants, ages 30 and above, from the third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, to compare the biological ages of blacks and whites as indicated from a combination of ten biomarkers and to determine if such differences in biological age relative to chronological age account for racial disparities in mortality. At a specified chronological age, blacks are approximately 3 years older biologically than whites. Differences in biological age between blacks and whites appear to increase up until ages 60-65 and then decline, presumably due to mortality selection. Finally, differences in biological age were found to completely account for higher levels of all-cause, cardiovascular and cancer mortality among blacks. Overall, these results suggest that being black is associated with significantly higher biological age at a given chronological age and that this is a pathway to early death both overall and from the major age-related diseases.

Keywords: Aging; Biomarkers; Life expectancy; Mortality selection; Racial disparities.

Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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Figures

Figure 1

Figure 1. Racial Differences in Adjusted Mean Biological Age by 10-year Chronological Age Groups

The difference in biological age between blacks and whites increased with chronological age prior to the age of 70. Blacks in their thirties, forties, fifties, and sixties had biological ages that were 2.28, 3.63, 4.59, and 4.82 years, respectively, higher than whites. However, for those in their seventies and eighties racial differences in biological age decreased to 2.94 and 1.17, respectively, and were no longer significant for persons ages 80-89. Models were adjusted for age, sex, education, BMI, and smoking. Bars represent stand errors of adjusted means.

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