| Title: | Effect of Earlier Age of Tobacco Exposure on Accelerated Biological Aging in Adulthood |
| Journal: | Mayo Clinic Proceedings |
| Published: | 31 Jul 2025 |
| Pubmed: | https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40742338/ |
| DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mayocp.2025.01.009 |
Publication 17233
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Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To investigate how early-life tobacco exposures implicate accelerated biological aging in adulthood and the potential mechanism.</p>
PARTICIPANTS AND METHODS: This study used questionnaires to determine when the participants smoked and whether their mothers smoked when pregnant. Early-life tobacco exposures included in utero tobacco exposure and age of smoking initiation. For evaluating biological aging, we used the following 8 outcome measures: telomere length, frailty index, homeostatic dysregulation score, Klemera-Doubal method biological age, age-related hospitalization rate, premature death, and life expectancy. Mediation analysis was used to identify the role of inflammation factors.</p>
RESULTS: During a median follow-up of 14.6 years, 8 outcome measures in participants were analyzed for age of smoking initiation (N=320,453). Compared with never smoking, smoking initiation at age 5 to 12 years (β=3.043; 95% CI, 2.683 to 3.403 and β=-0.011; 95% CI, -0.016 to -0.006), 13 to 17 years (β=1.343; 95% CI, 1.226 to 1.460 and β=-0.007; 95% CI, -0.009 to -0.005), and 18 years and above (β=0.949; 95% CI, 0.823 to 1.075 and β=-0.004; 95% CI, -0.006 to -0.003) were significantly associated with increased Klemera-Doubal method bioage and shorter telomere length, as well as with other aging-related outcome measures. Markers of inflammation significantly mediated up to 0.00% to 43.58% of the studied associations above.</p>
CONCLUSION: In utero tobacco exposure and earlier age of smoking initiation were significantly associated with accelerated biological aging. These associations were in part mediated through inflammation markers.</p>
13 Authors
- Hang Wang
- Xiaowen Qin
- Conghui Qiao
- Shenghan Lou
- Xinyi Sun
- Yuqing Song
- Yang Chen
- Tianshu Han
- Wei Wei
- Yingdong Zuo
- Jiaxin Huang
- Peng Han
- Wenbo Jiang
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