Allostatic load and subsequent all-cause mortality: which biological markers drive the relationship? Findings from a UK birth cohort

For the Lifepath Consortium

doi:10.1007/s10654-018-0364-1

Allostatic load and subsequent all-cause mortality: which biological markers drive the relationship? Findings from a UK birth cohort

For the Lifepath Consortium

Mailman School of Public Health

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

99 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The concept of allostatic load (AL) refers to the idea of a global physiological ‘wear and tear’ resulting from the adaptation to the environment through the stress response systems over the life span. The link between socioeconomic position (SEP) and mortality has now been established, and there is evidence that AL may capture the link between SEP and mortality. In order to quantitatively assess the role of AL on mortality, we use data from the 1958 British birth cohort including eleven year mortality in 8,113 adults. Specifically, we interrogate the hypothesis of a cumulative biological risk (allostatic load) reflecting 4 physiological systems potentially predicting future risk of death (N = 132). AL was defined using 14 biomarkers assayed in blood from a biosample collected at 44 years of age. Cox proportional hazard regression analysis revealed that higher allostatic load at 44 years old was a significant predictor of mortality 11 years later [HR = 3.56 (2.3 to 5.53)]. We found that this relationship was not solely related to early-life SEP, adverse childhood experiences and young adulthood health status, behaviours and SEP [HR = 2.57 (1.59 to 4.15)]. Regarding the ability of each physiological system and biomarkers to predict future death, our results suggest that the cumulative measure was advantageous compared to evaluating each physiological system sub-score and biomarker separately. Our findings add some evidence of a biological embodiment in response to stress which ultimately affects mortality.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	441-458
Number of pages	18
Journal	European Journal of Epidemiology
Volume	33
Issue number	5
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-018-0364-1
Publication status	Published - May 1 2018

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2018, The Author(s).

Funding

We are grateful to The Centre for Longitudinal Studies, UCL Institute of Education for the use of these data and to the UK Data Archive and UK Data Service for making them available. However, they bear no responsibility for the analysis or interpretation of these data. The members of the LIFEPATH Consortium are (alphabetic order): Harri Alenius, Mauricio Avendano, Valeria Baltar, Mel Bartley, Henrique Barros, Murielle Bochud, Cristian Carmeli,Luca Carra, Giuseppe Costa, Emilie Courtin, Angela Donkin, Angelo D’Errico, Pierre-Antoine Dugue, Paul Elliott, Giovanni Fiorito, Silvia Fraga, Martina Gandini, Graham Giles, Marcel Goldberg, Dario Greco, Allison Hodge, Piia Karisola, Mika Kivimaki, Jessica Laine, Thierry Lang, Richard Layte, Benoit Lepage, Johan Mackenbach, Michael Marmot, Carlos de Mestral, Cathal McCrory, Roger Milne, Peter Muennig, Wilma Nusselder, Dusan Petrovic, Silvia Polidoro, Martin Preisig, Olli Raitakari, Ana Isabel Ribeiro, Fulvio Ricceri, Erica Reinhard, Oliver Robinson, Jose Rubio Valverde, Roberto Satolli, Gianluca Severi, Silvia Stringhini, Joannie Tieulent, Salvatore Vaccarella, Anne-Claire Vergnaud, Peter Vollenweider, Marie Zins The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Funders	Funder number
UCL Institute of Education
Horizon 2020 Framework Programme	633666

ASJC Scopus Subject Areas

Epidemiology

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10.1007/s10654-018-0364-1

Cite this

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title = "Allostatic load and subsequent all-cause mortality: which biological markers drive the relationship? Findings from a UK birth cohort",

abstract = "The concept of allostatic load (AL) refers to the idea of a global physiological {\textquoteleft}wear and tear{\textquoteright} resulting from the adaptation to the environment through the stress response systems over the life span. The link between socioeconomic position (SEP) and mortality has now been established, and there is evidence that AL may capture the link between SEP and mortality. In order to quantitatively assess the role of AL on mortality, we use data from the 1958 British birth cohort including eleven year mortality in 8,113 adults. Specifically, we interrogate the hypothesis of a cumulative biological risk (allostatic load) reflecting 4 physiological systems potentially predicting future risk of death (N = 132). AL was defined using 14 biomarkers assayed in blood from a biosample collected at 44 years of age. Cox proportional hazard regression analysis revealed that higher allostatic load at 44 years old was a significant predictor of mortality 11 years later [HR = 3.56 (2.3 to 5.53)]. We found that this relationship was not solely related to early-life SEP, adverse childhood experiences and young adulthood health status, behaviours and SEP [HR = 2.57 (1.59 to 4.15)]. Regarding the ability of each physiological system and biomarkers to predict future death, our results suggest that the cumulative measure was advantageous compared to evaluating each physiological system sub-score and biomarker separately. Our findings add some evidence of a biological embodiment in response to stress which ultimately affects mortality.",

author = "{For the Lifepath Consortium} and Rapha{\"e}le Castagn{\'e} and Val{\'e}rie Gar{\`e}s and Maryam Karimi and Marc Chadeau-Hyam and Paolo Vineis and Cyrille Delpierre and Michelle Kelly-Irving and Harri Alenius and Mauricio Avendano and Valeria Baltar and Mel Bartley and Henrique Barros and Murielle Bochud and Cristian Carmeli and Luca Carra and Giuseppe Costa and Emilie Courtin and Angela Donkin and Angelo D{\textquoteright}Errico and Dugue, {Pierre Antoine} and Paul Elliott and Giovanni Fiorito and Silvia Fraga and Martina Gandini and Graham Giles and Marcel Goldberg and Dario Greco and Allison Hodge and Piia Karisola and Mika Kivimaki and Jessica Laine and Thierry Lang and Richard Layte and Benoit Lepage and Johan Mackenbach and Michael Marmot and Carlos de Mestral and Cathal McCrory and Roger Milne and Peter Muennig and Wilma Nusselder and Dusan Petrovic and Silvia Polidoro and Martin Preisig and Olli Raitakari and Ribeiro, {Ana Isabel} and Fulvio Ricceri and Erica Reinhard and Oliver Robinson and Valverde, {Jose Rubio}",

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T1 - Allostatic load and subsequent all-cause mortality

T2 - which biological markers drive the relationship? Findings from a UK birth cohort

AU - For the Lifepath Consortium

AU - Castagné, Raphaële

AU - Garès, Valérie

AU - Karimi, Maryam

AU - Chadeau-Hyam, Marc

AU - Vineis, Paolo

AU - Delpierre, Cyrille

AU - Kelly-Irving, Michelle

AU - Alenius, Harri

AU - Avendano, Mauricio

AU - Baltar, Valeria

AU - Bartley, Mel

AU - Barros, Henrique

AU - Bochud, Murielle

AU - Carmeli, Cristian

AU - Carra, Luca

AU - Costa, Giuseppe

AU - Courtin, Emilie

AU - Donkin, Angela

AU - D’Errico, Angelo

AU - Dugue, Pierre Antoine

AU - Elliott, Paul

AU - Fiorito, Giovanni

AU - Fraga, Silvia

AU - Gandini, Martina

AU - Giles, Graham

AU - Goldberg, Marcel

AU - Greco, Dario

AU - Hodge, Allison

AU - Karisola, Piia

AU - Kivimaki, Mika

AU - Laine, Jessica

AU - Lang, Thierry

AU - Layte, Richard

AU - Lepage, Benoit

AU - Mackenbach, Johan

AU - Marmot, Michael

AU - de Mestral, Carlos

AU - McCrory, Cathal

AU - Milne, Roger

AU - Muennig, Peter

AU - Nusselder, Wilma

AU - Petrovic, Dusan

AU - Polidoro, Silvia

AU - Preisig, Martin

AU - Raitakari, Olli

AU - Ribeiro, Ana Isabel

AU - Ricceri, Fulvio

AU - Reinhard, Erica

AU - Robinson, Oliver

AU - Valverde, Jose Rubio

PY - 2018/5/1

Y1 - 2018/5/1

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AB - The concept of allostatic load (AL) refers to the idea of a global physiological ‘wear and tear’ resulting from the adaptation to the environment through the stress response systems over the life span. The link between socioeconomic position (SEP) and mortality has now been established, and there is evidence that AL may capture the link between SEP and mortality. In order to quantitatively assess the role of AL on mortality, we use data from the 1958 British birth cohort including eleven year mortality in 8,113 adults. Specifically, we interrogate the hypothesis of a cumulative biological risk (allostatic load) reflecting 4 physiological systems potentially predicting future risk of death (N = 132). AL was defined using 14 biomarkers assayed in blood from a biosample collected at 44 years of age. Cox proportional hazard regression analysis revealed that higher allostatic load at 44 years old was a significant predictor of mortality 11 years later [HR = 3.56 (2.3 to 5.53)]. We found that this relationship was not solely related to early-life SEP, adverse childhood experiences and young adulthood health status, behaviours and SEP [HR = 2.57 (1.59 to 4.15)]. Regarding the ability of each physiological system and biomarkers to predict future death, our results suggest that the cumulative measure was advantageous compared to evaluating each physiological system sub-score and biomarker separately. Our findings add some evidence of a biological embodiment in response to stress which ultimately affects mortality.

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Allostatic load and subsequent all-cause mortality: which biological markers drive the relationship? Findings from a UK birth cohort

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

ASJC Scopus Subject Areas

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