Depression, Living in a Disadvantaged Neighbourhood May Lead To Faster Aging: Study

A new Canadian-led study has found that feeling depressed, along with living in a disadvantaged neighbourhood, may lead to premature aging.

The peer-reviewed study, published on Monday in The Journals of Gerontology, Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences, points to how depression and living in an urban environment – with greater material and social inequities – can influence how a person ages.

Led by researchers at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont., the study's authors say this may occur "even after accounting for individual-level health and behavioural risk factors, such as chronic conditions and poor health behaviours."

"This adds to the growing body of evidence that living in urban areas with higher levels of neighbourhood deprivation and having depression symptoms are both associated with premature biological aging," team lead Parminder Raina, a professor in the Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact at McMaster University, said in a news release.

The researchers used epigenetic data from 1,445 people enrolled in the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging, a long-term study that follows about 50,000 participants between the ages of 45 and 85 for at least 20 years.

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