Multidomain residential external exposome and epigenetic ageing in the UK general population
- 1Centre for Longitudinal Studies, UCL Institute of Education, University College London
Abstract
Residential environmental exposures might be associated with biological ageing, but evidence has largely focused on a limited set of single exposures. We investigated associations between the multidomain residential external exposome and epigenetic ageing in 3307 adults from the nationally representative UK Understanding Society study. We linked 30 exposures across six domains spanning social, built, physico-chemical, retail, health and weather environments, to residential postcodes and examined associations with first-, second- and third-generation epigenetic clocks. Across four complementary approaches capturing individual, joint, domain-level and clustered exposures, adverse social, built and physico-chemical environments showed the most consistent associations with biological ageing. Area deprivation, neighbourhood crime, lower social cohesion and greenness, air pollution and higher temperatures were associated with faster pace of ageing measured by third-generation clocks (particularly DunedinPACE) and, to a lesser extent, with PhenoAge. Greater distance to leisure services was associated with older biological age on Horvaths clock and PhenoAge. Clustering identified urban and rural exposure profiles, with faster ageing in the urban profile. Residential environmental exposures are associated with epigenetic ageing, with later-generation clocks appearing more sensitive to the biological imprint of the external residential exposome.
Graphical abstract
O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=103 SRC="FIGDIR/small/26363118v1_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1"> View larger version (30K): [email protected]@1e7e7e8org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@2a5e75org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@19f5783_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP M_FIG C_FIG
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BibTeX
@misc{baranyi2026multidomain,
title = {{Multidomain residential external exposome and epigenetic ageing in the UK general population}},
author = {G. Baranyi and K. de Hoogh and F. Coloma and R. Vermeulen and C. Tonne},
howpublished = {medRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.64898/2026.09.15.26363118},
url = {https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.15.26363118v1},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Multidomain residential external exposome and epigenetic ageing in the UK general population
AU - G. Baranyi
AU - K. de Hoogh
AU - F. Coloma
AU - R. Vermeulen
AU - C. Tonne
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/15
PB - medRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.09.15.26363118
UR - https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.15.26363118v1
AB - Residential environmental exposures might be associated with biological ageing, but evidence has largely focused on a limited set of single exposures. We investigated associations between the multidomain residential external exposome and epigenetic ageing in 3307 adults from the nationally representative UK Understanding Society study. We linked 30 exposures across six domains spanning social, built, physico-chemical, retail, health and weather environments, to residential postcodes and examined associations with first-, second- and third-generation epigenetic clocks. Across four complementary approaches capturing individual, joint, domain-level and clustered exposures, adverse social, built and physico-chemical environments showed the most consistent associations with biological ageing. Area deprivation, neighbourhood crime, lower social cohesion and greenness, air pollution and higher temperatures were associated with faster pace of ageing measured by third-generation clocks (particularly DunedinPACE) and, to a lesser extent, with PhenoAge. Greater distance to leisure services was associated with older biological age on Horvaths clock and PhenoAge. Clustering identified urban and rural exposure profiles, with faster ageing in the urban profile. Residential environmental exposures are associated with epigenetic ageing, with later-generation clocks appearing more sensitive to the biological imprint of the external residential exposome. Graphical abstract O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=103 SRC="FIGDIR/small/26363118v1_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1"> View larger version (30K): [email protected]@1e7e7e8org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@2a5e75org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@19f5783_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP M_FIG C_FIG
ER -