“What makes DunedinPACE unique is that while other tests aim to measure how old a person is, our measures whether you age quickly or slowly”, comments Daniel Belsky, Ph.D., assistant professor of epidemiology at the Columbia Mailman School. His Neurosciencenews portal.
The test tracks changes in 19 biomarkers in various body systems. The participants in the experiment were a thousand newborns – they were first included in the study in 1972-1973. Scientists tracked how their performance changes at different ages: when all participants were 0, 26, 32, 38 and 45 years old.
The development helped scientists assess how quickly the body ages, what factors affect it (thus, the oldest in terms of biological indicators were those who lived in poverty, were involved in crime, and were also victims of mental, domestic or sexual violence).
