“Our team examined whether these environments also have a direct
impact on cellular health,” she said. “We found that indeed, biological
aging processes could be influenced by socioeconomic conditions.”
The research team focused on telomeres, which are stretches of DNA
at the ends of chromosomes that often are compared to caps on shoelaces
because they protect the DNA strands from damage. Telomeres get trimmed
each time the cell divides because they are not fully copied by enzyme
mechanisms, and it is thought that aging occurs when the telomeres
become too short for DNA replication and cell division to proceed
normally. Telomere shortening can be accelerated with exposure to
biological or psychological stresses such as cancer, anxiety and
depression, Dr. Park said.
Working with researchers from Amsterdam, the team examined telomere
length in white blood cells of 2,902 Dutch individuals participating in
the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety and determined the
quality of the neighborhoods in which they resided using measures of
perceived neighborhood disorder, fear of crime and noise. They found
that the telomeres of people reporting poor neighborhood quality were
significantly shorter than telomeres of those who did not.
“The differences in telomere length between the two groups were
comparable to 12 years in chronological age,” Dr. Park said. “It’s
possible that their cells are chronically activated in response to
psychological and physiological stresses created by disadvantaged
socioeconomic, political and emotional circumstances.”
Other members of the study team included Charles F. Reynolds III,
M.D., of the University of Pittsburgh and director of the UPMC Aging
Institute; Josine E. Verhoeven, M.S., and Brenda W.J.H. Penninx, Ph.D.,
from VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam; and Pim Cuijpers, Ph.D.,
from VU University, Amsterdam.