In sum: Low SES & marginalized race/ethnicity are linked to faster biological aging. 3. gen clocks (and GrimAge) show strongest effects. Next step? Move from correlation to causation—intervention studies can help show how inequality gets under the skin ⏰🧬

⏰🧬 Similar to SES, racial/ethnic disparities were most pronounced with 3. gen clocks, followed by 2. gen. Once again, DunedinPoAm, DunedinPACE, and GrimAge showed the strongest social gradients in epigenetic aging.

🧬✅ We found no evidence of publication bias, which builds confidence in the meta-analytic effect-size estimates we report. A reassuring sign for the strength and reliability of this growing field.

👶🧬 SES associations with 3. gen clocks were just as strong in childhood as in adulthood —highlighting the early sensitivity of “epigenetic speedometers” (pace of aging).

⏰🧬 For SES, we found the weakest associations with 1. gen clocks (age predictors), stronger with 2. gen (health risk), and strongest with 3. gen (pace of aging). DunedinPoAm, DunedinPACE, and GrimAge showed the strongest links.

⏰🧬We conducted a pre-registered multi-level meta-analysis of 140 studies examining how SES and racial/ethnic identity relate to epigenetic-clock-measured aging. We compared 3 generations of clocks and tested whether associations varied by sex, age, array type, tissue, or cell composition 👇

(w/ Ada Rezaki, Anya Bahl, Muna Aikins, Qiao Wu, @danbelsky.bsky.social @laraffington.bsky.social )