Special report: the biology of inequalities in health: the lifepath consortium
File(s)
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Funded by the European Commission Horizon 2020 programme, the Lifepath research consortium aimed to investigate the effects of socioeconomic inequalities on the biology of healthy aging. The main research questions included the impact of inequalities on health, the role of behavioral and other risk factors, the underlying biological mechanisms, the efficacy of selected policies, and the general implications of our findings for theories and policies. The project adopted a life-course and comparative approach, considering lifetime effects from childhood and adulthood, and pooled data on up to 1.7 million participants of longitudinal cohort studies from Europe, USA, and Australia. These data showed that socioeconomic circumstances predicted mortality and functional decline as strongly as established risk factors currently targeted by global prevention programmes. Analyses also looked at socioeconomically patterned biological markers, allostatic load, and DNA methylation using richly phenotyped cohorts, unraveling their association with aging processes across the life-course. Lifepath studies suggest that socioeconomic circumstances are embedded in our biology from the outset—i.e., disadvantage influences biological systems from molecules to organs. Our findings have important implications for policy, suggesting that (a) intervening on unfavorable socioeconomic conditions is complementary and as important as targeting well-known risk factors, such as tobacco and alcohol consumption, low fruit and vegetable intake, obesity and a sedentary lifestyle, and that (b) effects of preventive interventions in early life integrate interventions in adulthood. The report has an executive summary that refers to the different sections of the main paper.
Date Issued
2020-05-12
Date Acceptance
2020-03-24
Citation
Frontiers in Public Health, 2020, 8, pp.1-37
ISSN
2296-2565
Publisher
Frontiers Media
Start Page
1
End Page
37
Journal / Book Title
Frontiers in Public Health
Volume
8
Copyright Statement
© 2020 Vineis, Avendano-Pabon, Barros, Bartley, Carmeli, Carra, Chadeau-Hyam, Costa, Delpierre, D'Errico, Fraga, Giles, Goldberg, Kelly-Irving, Kivimaki, Lepage, Lang, Layte, MacGuire, Mackenbach, Marmot, McCrory, Milne, Muennig, Nusselder, Petrovic, Polidoro, Ricceri, Robinson, Stringhini and Zins. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Sponsor
Commission of the European Communities
Medical Research Council (MRC)
Identifier
http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000537221400001&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=1ba7043ffcc86c417c072aa74d649202
Grant Number
633666
MR/S03532X/1
Subjects
Science & Technology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
social inequalities
socioeconomic position
healthy aging
life-course
omics
biology
ADVERSE CHILDHOOD EXPERIENCES
CONDITIONAL CASH TRANSFERS
CAUSE-SPECIFIC MORTALITY
ALLOSTATIC LOAD
SOCIOECONOMIC POSITION
RISK-FACTORS
OCCUPATIONAL CLASS
AGE
DETERMINANTS
ASSOCIATION
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
ARTN 118
Date Publish Online
2020-05-12