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According to a study, men are biologically older than women
A study from the University of Jyväskylä found that men are biologically older than women. The observed gender difference can be partly explained by men's more frequent smoking and larger body size. In the Western world, life expectancy increased rapidly in the 20th century, but women still live longer than men. In Finland, women live on average five years longer than men. The gender gap was greatest in the 1970s, when life expectancy at birth was almost ten years longer for women than for men. However, in recent decades this gap has...
According to a study, men are biologically older than women
A study from the University of Jyväskylä found that men are biologically older than women. The observed gender difference can be partly explained by men's more frequent smoking and larger body size.
In the Western world, life expectancy increased rapidly in the 20th century, but women still live longer than men. In Finland, women live on average five years longer than men. The gender gap was greatest in the 1970s, when life expectancy at birth was almost ten years longer for women than for men. However, in recent decades this gap has gradually narrowed. The difference between the sexes is also reflected in biological age, as a recently published study shows.
The study examined whether there are differences in biological age between men and women and whether the possible differences can be explained by lifestyle factors. These differences have been examined in young and older adults.
Several epigenetic clocks have been used as measures of biological age. Epigenetic clocks enable the study of lifespan-related factors throughout an individual's lifetime. They provide an estimate of biological age in years based on DNA methylation levels obtained from a blood sample.
We found that men are biologically older than women of the same chronological age, and the difference is significantly larger in older participants.”
Anna Kankaanpää, PhD student, Gerontological Research Center and Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences
More frequent smoking among men explained the gender age difference in older twins, but not in young adult twins. Furthermore, men's larger height explains a small part of the gender difference in both age groups.
“We observed a gender difference in the rate of aging that could not be explained by lifestyle factors,” says Kankaanpää.
"In our study, we also used a fairly rare study design and compared the rate of aging in pairs of twins of opposite sexes. A similar difference was also observed in these pairs of twins. The male sibling was biologically about a year older than his female sibling. "Twins. These pairs grew up in the same environment and share half of their genes. The difference can be due to, for example, gender differences in “Genetic factors and the positive effects of the female sex hormone estrogen on health can be explained,” continues Kankaanpää.
The results help to understand lifestyle behavior and gender differences in relation to biological age and life expectancy. The results suggest that the decline in smoking among men partly explains why the gender gap in life expectancy has narrowed in recent decades.
The research was carried out in collaboration with the University of Jyväskylä and the University of Helsinki. The subjects were younger (21–42 years) and older (50–76 years) adult twins from the Finnish twin cohort. Lifestyle-related factors such as education, body mass index, smoking, alcohol consumption and physical activity were assessed using questionnaires.
The AGE-X research project is led by academy researcher Elina Sillanpää. The project was carried out at the Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences at the University of Jyväskylä in collaboration with the Institute of Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM), the University of Helsinki and the Methodology Center for Human Sciences at the University of Jyväskylä. The research was funded by the Academy of Finland, the EC GenomEUtwin project and the Sigrid Juselius, Yrjö Jahnsson and Juho Vainio foundations.
Source:
Reference:
Kankaanpää, A., et al. (2022) Do epigenetic clocks offer explanations for sex differences in lifespan? A cross-sectional twin study. The Journals of Gerontology: Series A. doi.org/10.1093/gerona/glab337.
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