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Measuring the speed of aging across population subgroups
Warren C Sanderson1, Sergei Scherbov2
1Department of Economics, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York, United States of America; World Population Program, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Laxenburg, Austria; Wittgenstein Centre for Demography and Global Human Capital (International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, IIASA; Vienna Institute of Demography of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, VID/ÖAW; Vienna University of Economics and Business, WU), Laxenburg/Vienna, Austria.
Plos One
|May 9, 2014
Summary
Educational attainment influences aging rates, with higher education linked to slower aging as measured by hand-grip strength. This study reveals significant differences in aging speed across educational subgroups in the United States.
Area of Science:
- Gerontology
- Sociology
- Biomarkers
Background:
- Individual aging rates vary across different population subgroups.
- Biomarkers in surveys can quantify these differences in aging.
- Hand-grip strength is a validated predictor of mortality and morbidity, serving as a key indicator of population aging.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess characteristic-based aging rates across educational subgroups in the United States using hand-grip strength.
- To demonstrate the utility of survey data and biomarkers for measuring differential aging.
- To compare aging speeds between individuals with less than a high school diploma and those with higher education.
Main Methods:
- Utilized data from the Health and Retirement Survey (HRS).
- Defined two educational subgroups: less than high school diploma and more education.
- Performed regressions on hand-grip strength, analyzing age, education, interactions, and covariates by sex and race.
Main Results:
- White men with less education aged faster than their more educated counterparts (65 vs. 69.6 years).
- White women with less education also aged faster than more educated women (65 vs. 69.4 years).
- African-American women with more education exhibited slower aging; African-American men showed similar aging rates across education levels.
Conclusions:
- Educational attainment is associated with differential aging rates, observable through physical biomarkers like hand-grip strength.
- Hand-grip strength provides a valuable, interpretable measure for assessing population aging across diverse subgroups.
- This methodology enhances the toolkit for studying population aging and its social determinants.
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