A new University of Hawaiʻi study discovered for the first time that Native Hawaiians experience higher accelerated biological aging in comparison to White and Japanese American residents. The study also reports that living in adverse environments, such as in neighborhoods with low socioeconomic status, is associated with accelerated biological aging independent of ethnic background. However, life experiences may be protective against accelerated aging.

“We observed that despite living in socioeconomically poorer neighborhoods, individuals who engaged in higher physical activity, had a higher level of education attainment, and healthier diets tended to have closer to normal biological aging, which was independently associated with lower BMI and lower risk for diabetes,” said lead author Alika Maunakea, a Native Hawaiian professor of epigenetics and health disparities researcher at the John A. Burns School of Medicine in a press release.

To determine the findings, Maunakea and his team analyzed DNA samples from 376 participants in the UH Cancer Center’s ongoing multiethnic cohort. Biological aging refers to the gradual deterioration of cellular and physiological functions over time, reflecting the body’s true age at a molecular and cellular level, which may differ from chronological age. Biological aging is determined by studying a person’s DNA, but not the actual DNA sequence we know as genetics.

The association of life experiences with DNA methylation-derived biological age have mostly been studied in populations of European ancestry, with only a few studies on ethnically diverse populations. Yet, ethnically diverse populations suffer from diseases of health disparities, including Native Hawaiians who have a higher risk for and an earlier age of onset of diabetes, heart disease and certain cancers compared to all other major ethnic groups in the state of Hawaiʻi. Native Hawaiians also experience the highest all-cause mortality among all other ethnic groups. Maunakea hopes that this study sheds light on biological mechanisms that help to explain the origins of health disparities in Native Hawaiians in order to better address them.

This study was published in July 2024 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.