Inflammation linked to poorer health in women in the Philippines
An observational study of 953 women in the Philippines linked two inflammation measures to poorer physical and cognitive function and new diabetes and hypertension seven years later.
The Journals of Gerontology, Series A
Researchers studied 953 women in the Philippines, aged 43–75 at follow-up, in a seven-year observational study. At the start, they measured C-reactive protein, a blood protein used to assess inflammation. They also assessed inflammation using a proxy based on chemical marks on DNA.
Neither measure was strongly associated with age. Both were linked to later declines in physical and functional capacity, new cases of diabetes and hypertension, or high blood pressure, and poorer cognitive performance. The researchers accounted for participants’ baseline status and other factors. The DNA-based measure performed comparably to the blood protein measure. Its performance was robust to differences in the mix of white blood cells and symptoms of acute infection when samples were taken.
Why it matters
Chronic inflammation has been linked to illness and death in high-income countries. These findings support using inflammation markers to study aging in a lower-middle-income setting, where evidence has been limited.
Caveats
The observational design cannot establish that inflammation caused these outcomes. The study included only women in the Philippines.
The paper
Chronic inflammation and multiple dimensions of aging among women in the Philippines
Show 7 more authors
Elijah Watson, Linda S Adair, Nanette R Lee, Delia B Carba, Julie L MacIsaac, Kristy Dever, Michael S Kobor,Northwestern University · Harvard University
The Journals of Gerontology, Series A · 7 Oct 2026
