Special Report: The Biology of Inequalities in Health: The Lifepath Consortium

Frontiers in Public Health

article

Paolo Vineis¹  Angelo D'Errico¹  Silvia Fraga²  Graham Giles³  Marcel Goldberg⁶  Michelle Kelly-Irving⁷  Mika Kivimaki⁸  Benoit Lepage⁷  Thierry Lang⁷  Richard Layte⁹  Frances MacGuire⁸  Mauricio Avendano-Pabon^1,10  Johan P. Mackenbach^1,11  Michael Marmot⁸  Cathal McCrory^1,12  Roger L. Milne³  Peter Muennig^1,13  Wilma Nusselder^1,11  Dusan Petrovic^1,14  Silvia Polidoro^1,15  Fulvio Ricceri^1,16  Oliver Robinson¹  Henrique Barros²  Silvia Stringhini^1,17  Marie Zins⁶  Mel Bartley^1,18  Cristian Carmeli^1,14  Luca Carra^1,19  Marc Chadeau-Hyam¹  Giuseppe Costa^1,16  Cyrille Delpierre⁷ 

[1] Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Imperial College London, United Kingdom;EPIUnit – Institute of Public Health University of Porto;Cancer Epidemiology Division;Centre for Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of Melbourne;Precision Medicine, School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health, Monash University;UMS 011 Inserm - UVSQ ≪ Cohortes épidémiologiques en population ≫;Université de Toulouse III;Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, United Kingdom;Department of Sociology, School of Social Sciences and Philosophy, Trinity College Dublin;Department of Social Sciences, Health and Medicine, King's College London, United Kingdom;Department of Public Health, University Medical Center Rotterdam;Department of Medical Gerontology, Trinity College Dublin;Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, United States;Center for Primary Care and Public Health (UNISANTE), University of Lausanne;Molecular Epidemiology and Exposomics Unit, Italian Institute for Genomic Medicine;Department of Clinical Science & Biology, Turin University Medical School;Unit of Population Epidemiology, Division of Primary Care, Geneva University Hospitals;Department of Epidemiology & Public Health, University College London, United Kingdom;Zadig

关键词: social inequalities;    socioeconomic position;    healthy aging;    life-course;    omics;    biology;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpubh.2020.00118

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

Funded by the European Commission Horizon 2020 programme, the Lifepath research consortium aimed to investigate the effects of socioeconomic inequalities on the biology of healthy aging. The main research questions included the impact of inequalities on health, the role of behavioral and other risk factors, the underlying biological mechanisms, the efficacy of selected policies, and the general implications of our findings for theories and policies. The project adopted a life-course and comparative approach, considering lifetime effects from childhood and adulthood, and pooled data on up to 1.7 million participants of longitudinal cohort studies from Europe, USA, and Australia. These data showed that socioeconomic circumstances predicted mortality and functional decline as strongly as established risk factors currently targeted by global prevention programmes. Analyses also looked at socioeconomically patterned biological markers, allostatic load, and DNA methylation using richly phenotyped cohorts, unraveling their association with aging processes across the life-course. Lifepath studies suggest that socioeconomic circumstances are embedded in our biology from the outset—i.e., disadvantage influences biological systems from molecules to organs. Our findings have important implications for policy, suggesting that (a) intervening on unfavorable socioeconomic conditions is complementary and as important as targeting well-known risk factors, such as tobacco and alcohol consumption, low fruit and vegetable intake, obesity and a sedentary lifestyle, and that (b) effects of preventive interventions in early life integrate interventions in adulthood. The report has an executive summary that refers to the different sections of the main paper.

【 授权许可】

CC BY