Accelerated Telomere Attrition Is Associated with Relative Household Income, Diet and Inflammation in the pSoBid Cohort

TLDR

Lower socioeconomic status has been hypothesized to accelerate biological ageing and increase early disease risk, warranting further investigation into underlying mechanisms. The study examined how socioeconomic and lifestyle factors relate to telomere‑based biological ageing in a Glasgow cohort with wide socioeconomic variation. Telomere length was measured in 382 participants, and statistical analyses linked it to socioeconomic status, biochemical markers, and dietary intake. Accelerated telomere attrition correlated with lower income, insecure housing, and poor diet, while telomere length was positively linked to LDL and total cholesterol and negatively to IL‑6, suggesting socioeconomic disadvantage and inflammation drive biological ageing.

Abstract

Background It has previously been hypothesized that lower socio-economic status can accelerate biological ageing, and predispose to early onset of disease. This study investigated the association of socio-economic and lifestyle factors, as well as traditional and novel risk factors, with biological-ageing, as measured by telomere length, in a Glasgow based cohort that included individuals with extreme socio-economic differences. Methods A total of 382 blood samples from the pSoBid study were available for telomere analysis. For each participant, data was available for socio-economic status factors, biochemical parameters and dietary intake. Statistical analyses were undertaken to investigate the association between telomere lengths and these aforementioned parameters. Results The rate of age-related telomere attrition was significantly associated with low relative income, housing tenure and poor diet. Notably, telomere length was positively associated with LDL and total cholesterol levels, but inversely correlated to circulating IL-6. Conclusions These data suggest lower socio-economic status and poor diet are relevant to accelerated biological ageing. They also suggest potential associations between elevated circulating IL-6, a measure known to predict cardiovascular disease and diabetes with biological ageing. These observations require further study to tease out potential mechanistic links.