Social mobility and biological aging among older adults in the United States

Abstract

Lower socioeconomic status is associated with faster biological aging, the gradual and progressive decline in system integrity that accumulates with advancing age. Efforts to promote upward social mobility may therefore extend healthy lifespan. However, recent studies suggest that upward mobility may also have biological costs related to the stresses of crossing social boundaries. We analyzed blood-chemistry and DNA methylation (DNAm) data from n=9286 participants in the 2016 Health and Retirement Study (HRS) Venous Blood Study to test associations of life-course social mobility with biological aging. We quantified social mobility from childhood to later-life using data on childhood family characteristics, educational attainment, and wealth accumulation. We quantified biological aging using three DNA methylation "clocks" and three blood-chemistry algorithms. We observed substantial social mobility among study participants. Those who achieved upward mobility exhibited less-advanced and slower biological aging. Associations of upward mobility with less-advanced and slower aging were consistent for blood-chemistry and DNAm measures of biological aging and were similar for men and women and for Black and White Americans (Pearson-r effect-sizes ~0.2 for blood-chemistry measures and the DNAm GrimAge clock and DunedinPoAm pace-of-aging measures; effect-sizes were smaller for the DNAm PhenoAge clock). Analysis restricted to educational mobility revealed differential effects by racial identity, suggesting that mediating links between educational mobility and healthy aging may be disrupted by structural racism. In contrast, mobility producing accumulation of wealth appeared to benefit White and Black Americans equally, suggesting economic intervention to reduce wealth inequality may have potential to heal disparities in healthy aging. Significance StatementUpward social mobility may disrupt effects of early-life disadvantage on aging-related health decline. However, the stresses of crossing social boundaries can have biological costs. To investigate the balance of these forces, we analyzed social mobility from reports of childhood circumstances, education, and later-life wealth in 9,286 older adults in the US Health and Retirement Study. We quantified life-course health impacts of social mobility from blood-chemistry and DNA-methylation analysis of biological aging. We found that educational mobility alone benefited Black Americans less than White Americans, whereas mobility that produced accumulation of wealth into later-life was associated with delayed biological aging across social categories. Black-White disparities in healthy-aging outcomes of educational mobility may reflect inequalities in social gains realized from education.