Epigenetic Clocks, Weathering, and the Problem of Population Portability in Research on Racial Health Disparities

• In Event: Biology and Society Section Open Call Paper Session

Abstract

A core ambition of contemporary biosocial research is concerned with quantifying the harms of social inequality in material, biological outcomes. Among the most prominent biomarkers used in social science research are epigenetic aging algorithms, so-called “epigenetic clocks.” Their appeal is rooted in their metaphoric power; if structural racism contributes to chronic illness and physiologic wear and tear, then molecular traces of age acceleration should function as measurable evidence of ongoing harm.

Imported into the weathering literature, epigenetic age acceleration (EAA) has been used to document the cumulative biological toll of racial marginalization. Weathering is a process theorized by Arline Geronimus as the accelerated physiological wear and tear that disproportionately occurs in Black and Latino populations navigating a racist society and underlies racialized inequalities in longevity, lifespan, and healthspan (Geronimus et al. 2006). Findings from large cohorts, including the Multi-Ethnic Study of Artherosclerosis cohort, have extended this empirical program nationally (Krieger et al. 2024).Rather than dispute weathering as a means of understanding racialized health inequality, this paper advances a critique of EAA tools specifically as a means of quantifying cumulative biological wear and tear in the context of racism

Authors

• Luisa Rivera, University College London

• Chinyere O Agbai, The Ohio State University

• Brittney Francis, Harvard University