Researchers have conducted an extensive analysis of medical data from nearly half a million participants in the UK Biobank to examine the influence of 164 different lifestyle and environmental factors on aging, age-related diseases, and premature death. The study, led by Austin Argentieri, PhD, a research fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital, offers new insights into how these factors impact longevity.
The research utilized a unique aging model known as the ‘aging clock’. Dr. Austin Argentieri explained that an aging clock estimates a person’s biological age based on molecular markers rather than chronological age. "Think of it like a stopwatch that measures how your body is aging internally," Argentieri noted.
In a previous publication, researchers developed a proteomic aging clock using blood proteins and machine learning to estimate biological age. This clock proved to be a powerful predictor of mortality and disease multimorbidity. In the current study, it was employed to identify environmental exposures linked to aging.
Argentieri emphasized, "We used the proteomic aging clock to select exposures associated with both mortality and the proteomic age clock in consistent directions."
At the conclusion of the study, the team identified 25 lifestyle and environmental factors associated with mortality and proteomic aging, including:
Cheese consumption Ease of skin tanning Education years Employment status Ethnicity Frequency of feeling tired Gym use History of financial difficulties Household income Physical activity Sleeping hours Smoking status Type of housing Using an open fire for heating Weight and height at 10 years oldThe study found that factors such as smoking, socioeconomic status, and physical activity had the most significant impact on mortality and biological aging. Smoking alone was linked to 21 diseases, while socioeconomic factors and tiredness frequency correlated with 19 diseases.
The researchers attributed 17% of the variation in death risk to environmental factors, compared to less than 2% due to genetic predisposition for 22 major diseases. Environmental exposures notably affected lung, heart, and liver diseases, whereas genetic risk remained predominant for dementias and breast cancer.
"This demonstrates that our environments and lifestyles are almost 10 times more important in explaining mortality risk than our genetic predisposition," Argentieri explained. He emphasized the potential for improving population health by addressing environmental and economic conditions.
Cheng-Han Chen, MD, a board-certified interventional cardiologist, commented on the study: "This population-based study found that environmental factors — such as physical inactivity and socioeconomic factors — play a much bigger role than genetic factors in the development of disease and early death." Dr. Chen highlighted the opportunity to reduce the global burden of disease by targeting modifiable risk factors.
He added, "The environmental factors in this study explained only about 17% of the variation in the risk of death. Future research could explore other environmental risk factors, such as chemical exposures, for their contribution to disease."
