A new multi-national research project has revealed how myriad factors, including health, social equity and the environment, drive people in different countries to age at different rates. Understanding these factors may improve intervention to prevent rapid ageing.
"It's a very important study," Claudia Kimie Suemoto, a geriatrician at the University of São Paulo, told Nature. "It gives us the global perspective of how these dependent factors shape ageing in different regions of the world."
What did the study find?
In the study, published in Nature Medicine, researchers examined 161,981 participants from 40 countries around the world to determine their "biobehavioural age gap": the difference between a person's true chronological age and their biological age, impacted by "combined physical and social exposures experienced throughout life", said Nature.
European countries had the highest levels of healthy ageing, with Denmark topping the list. Egypt and South Africa had the fastest agers, and Latin American countries also showed faster ageing, with Asian countries in the middle.
Why do some nationalities age faster?
Some of the influencing factors were predictable, including high blood pressure, heart disease, unhealthy weight, alcohol consumption, sleep problems and diabetes.
Sociopolitical factors also contributed to faster ageing, including "lower national income levels, exposure to air pollution, social inequality and gender inequality", said Scientific American. The researchers associated the gap in ageing with potentially high levels of stress. "Environmental and political conditions leave measurable fingerprints," said Hernan Hernandez, co-author of the study.
Factors shown to protect against rapid ageing are "education, ability to perform activities of daily living, and sound cognitive abilities", said Nature. Others include "physical activity, good memory and the ability to walk well".
What could be done to improve outcomes?
"Cognition, functional ability, education, well-being, physical activity, sensory impairments and cardiometabolic conditions can be addressed through lifestyle changes, multicomponent interventions and public health policies," the study suggests.
But, to remedy wider inequalities, systemic change is necessary. "Governments, international organisations and public health leaders must urgently act" on everything from "reducing air pollution to strengthening democratic institutions", said study co-author Hernando Santamaria-Garcia. | 
