Accelerated aging is linked to blood clots in low-risk adults
By age 75, low-risk adults in the top tenth of biological aging had a predicted cumulative incidence of 21.7% versus 14.7% in the bottom tenth.
Edited by Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News
Participants in two longitudinal observational cohorts were analyzed: the Gutenberg Health Study, with 1,001 arterial blood clot events, and the UK Biobank, with 44,108 events. Genetic risk had weaker associations with clot risk at older ages in both cohorts. The Gutenberg study also found this pattern for cardiovascular risk factors. In the UK Biobank, the hazard ratio, a relative measure of risk, for a genetic risk score fell from 1.85 at age 53 to 1.10 by age 80. In a Gutenberg subgroup of 3,312 people with low genetic risk and at most one cardiovascular risk factor, 173 arterial events occurred. Faster biological aging and inflammaging, measured using a blood marker of inflammation, were associated with clot risk in this group. By age 75, predicted cumulative incidence was 21.7% in the top tenth of the biological aging measure versus 14.7% in the bottom tenth.
Why it matters
The findings bear on how to assess arterial clot risk as people age, including among those with few recognized risk factors. The researchers suggested incorporating biological age into risk assessment and prevention strategies.
Caveats
This observational analysis cannot establish that accelerated biological aging causes arterial blood clots. The reported cumulative incidence values are predictions from a statistical model rather than directly observed event rates.
The paper
University Medical Centre of the Johannes Gutenberg University
ESC Congress 2026 Abstract, Oct 26, 2026
Presented at ESC Congress 2026