Ticking Clocks: Explaining Aging in Population Studies
Florence Mahoney Lecture on Aging | to
Eileen Crimmins, PhD
University Professor
AARP Chair in Gerontology
Co-Director, Multidisciplinary Research Training in Gerontology PhD Program
Co-Director, USC/UCLA Center on Biodemography and Population Health
USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology
Eileen Crimmins, PhD, is University Professor and holder of the AARP Chair in Gerontology at the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine, is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
She is currently the co-director of the USC/UCLA Center on Biodemography and Population Health, one of the Demography of Aging Centers supported by the U.S. National Institute on Aging. She is also the co-director of the Multidisciplinary Training in Gerontology Program and the NIA-sponsored Network on Biological Risk.
Much of Crimmins’ research has focused on changes over time in health and mortality. Crimmins has been instrumental in organizing and promoting the recent integration of the measurement of biological indicators in large population surveys. She has served as co-chair of a Committee for the National Academy of Sciences to address why life expectancy in the U.S. is falling so far behind that of other countries.
She is the co-editor of several books with a focus on international aging, mortality and health expectancy: Determining Health Expectancies; Longer Life and Healthy Aging; Human Longevity, Individual Life Duration, and the Growth of the Oldest-old Population; International Handbook of Adult Mortality; Explaining Diverging Levels of Longevity in High-Income Countries; and International Differences in Mortality at Older Ages: Dimensions and Sources. She has received the Kleemeier Award for Research from the Gerontological Society of America and the Irene B. Taeuber Award from the Population Association of America.
Summary
Over the last decade several hallmarks of aging have been introduced into many nationally representative population studies. Here we examine the universality of relationships across different countries and the cumulative and hallmark specific explanatory power. We find a remarkable universality of associations for epigenetic measures, and important explanations of the meaning and differences between epigenetic clocks by linking transcriptomic and epigenetic data. These studies have a focus on social differentials in aging; social differentials in hallmarks of aging indicate the basic level at which social factors get under the skin to promote differential aging.
Learning Objectives:
- Evaluate the universality of associations between hallmarks of aging and health outcomes across different countries and populations.
- Explain the differences and biological meaning of epigenetic clocks by integrating transcriptomic and epigenetic data.
- Analyze how social determinants influence biological aging processes through their impact on hallmarks of aging.
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