Study: More education could slow down aging

[New Sancai Compilation First Release] School not only makes people smarter, it also helps them live longer, researchers report. Research has found that people with more education tend to age slower and live longer than those with less education.

Higher educational attainment is significantly associated with slower aging and a lower risk of death, according to a report published March 1 in the journal JAMA Network Open.

In fact, research shows that every two years of additional schooling is associated with a 2% to 3% slower aging rate. This equates to about a 10% reduction in the risk of premature death. Researchers say this is the first study to link educational achievement to the rate of aging and time to death.

"We've known for a long time that people who are more educated tend to live longer," said senior researcher Daniel Belsky, associate professor of epidemiology at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health in New York City.

"But there are a number of challenges in figuring out how this happens and, most importantly, whether interventions to improve educational attainment contribute to health and longevity," Belsky added in the release.

For the study, researchers relied on data from the Framingham Heart Study, a program first launched in 1948 that tracks the health of residents in the town of Framingham, Massachusetts. The research now spans three generations.

To measure the rate of aging, researchers analyzed the genetic data of Framingham study participants using a genetic "clock" test, which functions like a speedometer for the aging process. This test measures how quickly a person's body changes as they age.

The researchers then compared the genetic aging data with the educational attainment each person in the study had achieved compared with their parents and siblings.

In this way, the study can account for differences in educational background and financial resources between families, the researchers said.

"These study designs control for differences between households, allowing us to isolate the effects of education," said lead researcher Gloria Graf, a doctoral student in epidemiology at Columbia University.

By comparing education and aging data with records showing how long participants lived, the researchers were able to link slower rates of aging to longer lifespans among people with higher levels of education.

The healthy aging trajectories of the better-educated participants explained half of the effect of education on the risk of death, Graf said. "Our findings support the hypothesis that interventions to increase educational attainment will slow the rate of biological aging and extend lifespan," Graf said.

However, Belsky said more research is needed to confirm this relationship and explain why education can help a person age more gracefully. "Ultimately, experimental evidence is needed to confirm our findings," Belsky said.

(Compiled by: Wang Jimin)

(Editor: Jiang Qiming)

(Source of the article: Compiled and published by New Sancai)