Neighborhood poverty duration, timing, and severity from adolescence to early midlife and biological aging

Neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage is linked to accelerated biological aging using DNA methylation; however, limited knowledge exists of the relationship between duration or timing of exposure to neighborhood poverty across life stages and biological aging, measured by epigenetic clocks. Existing research has relied on samples with limited racial and gender diversity. We examined the relationship between multiple dimensions of neighborhood poverty (duration, life stage of first exposure, life stage exposure trajectories, and severity) and biological aging using data from 3637 participants followed for 25 years in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. We employed survey linear regression models to estimate associations for three epigenetic clocks: GrimAge2, PhenoAge, DunedinPACE. In the total sample, only 8% of participants experienced neighborhood poverty across all life stages, which differed starkly by race (Non-Hispanic Blacks: 26% vs. Non-Hispanic Whites: 4%). We found that each additional life stage of exposure to neighborhood poverty was associated with significant biological age acceleration. Experiencing neighborhood poverty in mid-adulthood was consistently associated with accelerated biological aging. Our results suggest a relationship between duration and timing of exposure to neighborhood poverty and accelerated biological aging across key biological clocks, indicating possible lasting cellular level effects of residential context.