Premature ageing: the link between psychosocial risk factors and disease

In epidemiological studies from different countries, morbidity and mortality have been found to be increased in populations exposed to adverse psychosocial factors, e.g. low social class or poor social networks. Biological mechanisms must be operative to mediate this influence of social factors on clinical outcome. As increasing age is the common denominator for different categories of chronic disease, the ageing process itself in individuals may be studied in connection with data on exposure to negative psychosocial and lifestyle factors. A hypothesis is stated that premature ageing is the result of social pathology working on human physiology if buffering, health-preserving (salutogenic) mechanisms are not sufficient to counteract this effect. One measurable variable of the ageing process may be melatonin, known to decrease with age and to be lower in patients with coronary heart disease than in normal individuals.