Neighborhood racial makeup linked to White adults’ aging markers
An observational study of 3,187 older Black and White Americans linked greater neighborhood clustering of White residents to lower age-acceleration scores among White participants.
Limit: Higher household incomes account for around 25% of the neighborhood association
Edited by Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News
An observational study examined 3,187 non-Hispanic Black and White older adults in the Health and Retirement Study, whose mean age was 69. Researchers combined survey and neighborhood data with blood samples collected in 2016. They combined three DNA-based aging measures into a score of epigenetic age acceleration, a marker of premature aging.
White participants who lived in areas with high concentrations of other White residents in 2010 had lower scores in 2016 than White peers living near fewer White residents. Higher household incomes in predominantly White areas accounted for around 25% of this association. With one minor exception, the researchers found no statistically significant links between residential conditions and age acceleration among Black participants.
Why it matters
The authors highlighted concentrated privilege in predominantly White areas as a potential contributor to Black-White health and aging disparities.
Caveats
The observational design cannot establish cause and effect, and the outcome was an aging marker. The findings may not extend to younger people or other racial and ethnic groups.
- Household income
- Air pollution
- Epigenetic regulation of gene expression
- Epigenetic age
- DunedinPoAm38
- Humans
The paper
University of Michigan
Social Science & Medicine, Jul 27, 2026, Open access
