Research
shows that adults who spend as few as 4 years in economic hardship could be at
risk of accelerated aging in comparison with adults who do not experience
periods of poverty.
The term accelerated aging describes people who are physically
less capable at an earlier age than others at the same life stage. These people
may also have poorer cognitive function and higher levels of inflammatory
markers in their blood.
Scientists associate high detection of markers of inflammation, such as C-reactive protein (CRP) and IL-6, with many
conditions, including infection and cancer.
An aging population, particularly in western societies, means
that healthcare costs disproportionately affect older adults. This phenomenon
has led to a drive-in promoting healthy aging.
As such, researchers from the Department of Public Health at the
University of Copenhagen in Denmark conducted a study to investigate whether
late-middle-aged adults are adversely affected by economic hardship compared
with adults of the same age who are not experiencing financial problems.
Studying financial hardship and aging
The benchmark for economic hardship in this study included
people with relatively low income. In this case, those with incomes 60% less
than the national average across 22 years.
The researchers studied 5,575 adults in the late-middle-aged
population, of whom 18% experienced poverty in the period 1987-2008. The team,
which was led by Rikke Lund, studied aging by analyzing both physical and
cognitive function, including chair rise, grip strength, jump, and balance.
The researchers found that people who have lived in relative
poverty for 4 years or more did not perform as well as the people who have
never experienced financial hardship. They also found that those living with
financial issues had heightened levels of inflammatory markers in their blood.
Their findings suggest that moving out of economic hardship
protects against accelerated aging and that increasing probability of economic
hardship results in the opposite and leads to a rise in blood CRP levels.
Interestingly, experiencing poverty earlier in life for a
shorter period did not indicate accelerated aging. However, entering a period
of financial difficulties in later life as a result of job loss was a
significant contributing factor.
This suggests that financial hardship during early life due to
being in higher education or taking on short term contract jobs is not as
stressful as poverty in later life. It also suggests that accelerated aging
could be time sensitive.
The study's significance and limitations
This study is in line with other studies that have also
demonstrated inverse associations between financial hardship and physical capability, as well as self-reported
cognitive difficulties.
However, these results do conflict with one study, which indicates
that a person's perception of their economic hardship is a more important indicator
of health than how much money they have.
This study does have some limitations, however. For example, the
researchers did not consider any potential confounding factors that may lead to
adverse aging. These factors include the development of diseases not associated
with poverty but which may be life-limiting or accelerate aging.
Furthermore, this study does not analyze populations of adults
from a variety of societies. The research focused only on people in Denmark and
is, therefore, not reflective of the global outlook.
In conclusion, the evidence presented in this study shows that
just a few years of financial hardship across the adult life course has no
associations with early aging. However, people who experience economic
difficulties for 4 or more years have poorer physical capability, cognitive
function, and higher inflammatory levels in midlife.
"Early aging also means
more treatment at an earlier age, and it is a burden both to the individual and
the society. With our results, we show that poor finances are a strong
indicator of early aging — this knowledge can be used to prevent the
problems."
Rikke Lund
The authors suggest that
preventive initiatives that focus on reducing the burden of sustained economic
hardship may help decrease the rates of accelerated aging in adults.
Source: Medical News Today
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