Larger cash gifts lowered an aging marker in children
In a randomized trial, children whose mothers received $333 monthly had lower DNA-based aging scores at age four than children whose mothers received $20 monthly.
448 participants, registered NCT03593356
Limit: DunedinPACE was developed in adult blood; saliva measurements lose some signal
Edited by Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News
A randomized trial analyzed saliva from 735 four-year-old boys and girls and 777 US mothers with low incomes. Mothers were assigned to receive either $333 or $20 monthly after childbirth and received the gifts through their children’s first four years.
Researchers measured chemical tags on DNA using DunedinPACE, a tool developed in adults to estimate the pace of aging. At age four, children in the higher-cash group had lower scores by 0.17 standard deviations—a unit based on how widely participants’ scores varied. Researchers found no evidence that larger gifts increased a separate DNA-based score linked to thinking abilities. They also found no evidence of effects on either measure in mothers.
Why it matters
The trial addressed whether financial circumstances in early childhood can influence a DNA-based predictor of healthy lifespan.
Caveats
The aging finding was based on a DNA marker developed in adults and measured as a secondary outcome, not on changes in lifespan or health. Whether the effect persists or relates to later behavior or health remains unknown; the findings concern US families with low incomes.
From the paper
- Participants
The full 1,000-dyad sample was enrolled between 9 May 2018, and 19 June 2019.
- Who took part
The study recruited mothers and their newborns across 12 birth hospitals in four areas: the greater New Orleans metropolitan area, the greater Omaha metropolitan area, the Twin Cities (Minneapolis and St. Paul) and New York City.
- Ages
Measures of DNAm were available from 735 BFY focal children’s saliva at age 4.
Results, The impact of the high-cash gift on children’s epigenetic indices
- Sex
There were n = 735 children (n = 369 boys and n = 366 girls), of which n = 312 were in the high-cash and n = 423 in the low-cash group.
- Duration
Originally scheduled for the first 40 months of the child’s life, the intervention was later lengthened to the first 76 months.
- Analyzed for DunedinPACE
Analyses used all mother–child dyads with quality-controlled DNAm data available at the age-4 visit (children n = 735; mothers n = 777), a sample of a similar order of magnitude to that anticipated in the trial’s original power calculation.
- Result
Results show that the higher cash gifts slowed children’s epigenetic pace of biological ageing, as measured by DunedinPACE (−0.17 s.d. difference between high- and low-cash gift groups, 95% confidence interval (CI) −0.32 to −0.01, P = 0.037; Table 1).
Results, The impact of the high-cash gift on children’s epigenetic indices
- Limitation
First, the BFY mothers and children are still young, so we do not know if and how epigenetic modifications in response to the cash transfer may emerge, persist and relate to ageing, health and cognitive outcomes.
- Epigenetic-g
For Epigenetic-g_separate, the ITT impact estimate was in the opposite direction of our hypothesized outcome (lower Epigenetic-g in children from the high-cash treatment group), but was not different from zero (−0.15 s.d., 95% CI −0.31 to 0.02, P = 0.077; Table 1).
Results, The impact of the high-cash gift on children’s epigenetic indices
- DunedinPACE
We found no evidence to suggest that mothers in the high-cash gift group differed from those in the low-cash gift group with respect to epigenetic measures (all effect size d values <0.10; Table 4 and Supplementary Table 4).
Results, The impact of the high-cash gift on mothers’ epigenetic indices
Quoted word for word from the full text on nature.com.
The paper
Max Planck Institute for Human Development; Columbia University
Nature Human Behaviour, Sep 8, 2026, Open access
