A recent large-scale cohort study leveraging the UK Biobank database provides new evidence that accelerated biological aging (BA) is significantly associated with an increased risk of developing dementia. The study included 280,918 adults and followed them for a median of 13.58 years. With over 4,700 incident dementia cases identified, the research offers compelling data to support the notion that biological, rather than chronological, age may be a more accurate predictor of neurodegenerative risk.
Participants who developed dementia were generally older and more likely to be male, former or current smokers and drinkers, and carriers of the APOE ε4 allele. These individuals also had higher BMI, lower educational attainment, and lived in areas with greater socioeconomic deprivation, as measured by the Townsend index.
Biological age was quantified using two validated algorithms: Klemera-Doubal Method Biological Age (KDM-BA) and PhenoAge. Both measures integrate clinical biomarkers such as forced expiratory volume (FEV1), systolic blood pressure (SBP), cholesterol, glycated hemoglobin, albumin, and others, aiming to estimate the functional age of an individual rather than just their years lived.
Over the follow-up period, 4,770 participants developed dementia. A clear trend emerged: those with accelerated biological aging were significantly more likely to develop the condition. When analyzed continuously, each standard deviation increase in KDM-BA and PhenoAge acceleration was associated with a 14% and 15% higher risk of dementia, respectively. Importantly, the associations remained significant even after adjusting for age, sex, BMI, education, smoking and drinking status, socioeconomic status, and APOE ε4 genotype. This adjustment underscores the independent predictive power of biological aging on dementia risk.
This study reinforces the clinical utility of biological age as a more precise risk marker for dementia than chronological age. It provides a compelling argument for integrating BA metrics into preventive health screenings, especially given that interventions targeting modifiable risk factors such as blood pressure, glucose control, and inflammation could potentially decelerate biological aging and, by extension, reduce dementia risk.
The UK Biobank study offers strong evidence that accelerated biological aging significantly increases the risk of incident dementia, independent of conventional risk factors. As our understanding of aging biology deepens, there is growing potential to use BA measures not just to predict disease but to intervene earlier in the aging process and promote cognitive longevity.
Sources: Neurology