Social-to-Biological Pathway to Cognitive and Physical Impairment

Maximising opportunity for independent, healthy ageing and reducing inequalities in later life has emerged as a key priority in national and local policies and NHS plans in the United Kingdom. One way to achieve this is to delay the onset of cognitive and physical impairment. Since these conditions could emerge earlier in some disease trajectories such as dementia or Parkinson disease, a greater understanding of the main risk factors and underlying biological mechanisms are timely and critical. My research aims to understand the mechanisms; particularly the neuroinflammatory and epigenetic processes, through which socioeconomic inequalities in cognitive and physical impairment emerge among the older population. Results from this study might have the potential to contribute to an evidential framework for understanding some common social and biological roots of the social gradient in impairment in later life. Findings from this study can provide additional insights into how SEP matters for underlying biophysiological functioning in later life. It might also offer incremental value to the knowledge base on the potential utility of DNAm as a peripheral biomarker of CI and PI among high risk older adults.