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Neighborhood Disadvantage and Biological Aging: Using Marginal Structural Models to Assess the Link Between Neighborhood Census Variables and Epigenetic Aging

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  • Man-Kit Lei
  • Ronald L Simons
  • Steven R H Beach
  • Robert A Philibert
  • Philippa Clarke

Abstract

Objectives Past research has reported an association between neighborhood disadvantage and healthy aging, but most of these studies utilize self-report measures of health or physical functioning and do not properly account for neighborhood selection effects, creating concerns regarding inflated associations. To overcome these limitations and provide a more stringent estimate of effects, the current study investigated the effect of neighborhood disadvantage on aging using newly developed epigenetic methods to assess rate of biological aging and marginal structural modeling (MSM) to account for potential confounds due to neighborhood selection. Methods We tested the hypothesis that neighborhood disadvantage accelerates aging using U.S. census data and five waves of interview data from a sample of 100 middle-aged African American women. Using a recently developed epigenetic index of aging, biological age was measured using weighted methylation values at 71 CpG sites. We calculated a measure of accelerated methylomic aging (in years) based upon the residual scores resulting from a regression of methylomic age on chronological age. Results Controlling for a variety of individual difference factors that could be confounded with neighborhood effects, including various health behaviors, neighborhood disadvantage was associated with accelerated biological aging. Using MSM to account for selection effects, a standard deviation increase in neighborhood disadvantage accelerated aging an average of 9 months.ConclusionsOur findings converge with prior work to provide strong evidence that neighborhood context is a significant determinant of healthy aging.

Suggested Citation

  • Man-Kit Lei & Ronald L Simons & Steven R H Beach & Robert A Philibert & Philippa Clarke, 2019. "Neighborhood Disadvantage and Biological Aging: Using Marginal Structural Models to Assess the Link Between Neighborhood Census Variables and Epigenetic Aging," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 74(7), pages 50-59.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:geronb:v:74:y:2019:i:7:p:e50-e59.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/geronb/gbx015
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Steven R. H. Beach & Eric T. Klopack & Sierra E. Carter & Robert A. Philibert & Ronald L. Simons & Frederick X. Gibbons & Mei Ling Ong & Meg Gerrard & Man-Kit Lei, 2022. "Do Loneliness and Per Capita Income Combine to Increase the Pace of Biological Aging for Black Adults across Late Middle Age?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(20), pages 1-16, October.
    2. Man-Kit Lei & Ronald L. Simons, 2021. "The Association between Neighborhood Disorder and Health: Exploring the Moderating Role of Genotype and Marriage," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(3), pages 1-23, January.
    3. Lei, Man-Kit & Berg, Mark T. & Simons, Ronald L. & Beach, Steven R.H., 2022. "Neighborhood structural disadvantage and biological aging in a sample of Black middle age and young adults," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 293(C).
    4. Gao, Xing & Engeda, Joseph & Moore, Latetia V. & Auchincloss, Amy H. & Moore, Kari & Mujahid, Mahasin S., 2022. "Longitudinal associations between objective and perceived healthy food environment and diet: The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 292(C).
    5. Berg, Mark T. & Rogers, Ethan M. & Riley, Kendall & Lei, Man-Kit & Simons, Ronald L., 2022. "Incarceration exposure and epigenetic aging in neighborhood context," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 310(C).
    6. Jackson, Pamela & Spector, Antoinette L. & Strath, Larissa J. & Antoine, Lisa H. & Li, Peng & Goodin, Burel R. & Hidalgo, Bertha A. & Kempf, Mirjam-Colette & Gonzalez, Cesar E. & Jones, Alana C. & Fos, 2023. "Epigenetic age acceleration mediates the relationship between neighborhood deprivation and pain severity in adults with or at risk for knee osteoarthritis pain," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 331(C).
    7. Lei, Man-Kit & Berg, Mark T. & Simons, Ronald L. & Simons, Leslie G. & Beach, Steven R.H., 2020. "Childhood adversity and cardiovascular disease risk: An appraisal of recall methods with a focus on stress-buffering processes in childhood and adulthood," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 246(C).

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