Surprising new research has suggested that your grandparents’ level of education affects how quickly you age, with a person's health being intrinsically linked with their path of study.
There's plenty of work that goes into bringing up a child, all in the hopes of helping them to grow up into a happy, healthy adult. Parents make sure to teach kids emotional intelligence, get them involved in easy, kid-friendly exercises, and buy them toys that support their mental health and wellbeing.
But new research has found that there's one, uncontrollable element that will affect a child's health as they grow up.
According to researchers at Drexel University, the University of California, and the University of North Carolina, whether or not someone's grandparent went to university will inevitably affect how quickly they age.
It's surprising, isn't it? But the research, recently published in the journal Social Science and Medicine, collected data about the education of grandparents and then compared that with health data from their grandchildren. They found that those kids who had at least one grandparent who had gone into higher education had a significantly lower 'real' age, which is the age given to someone based on the health of their cells.
In simple terms, the grandchildren of university-educated grandparents showed slower biological ageing, the researchers say, with their bodies and cells being younger than their actual age.
So why is this the case? It actually makes a lot of sense even though the findings suggest something surprising and out-of-the-ordinary.
The research's lead author Agus Surachman, Ph.D., an assistant professor at the Dornsife School of Public Health, explained, "The research community has established a link between how social factors, socioeconomic factors, and childhood adversity can contribute to health trajectories."
"We know from animal studies that health is transmitted across several generations, from grandparents to grandchildren. But we now have robust human data that shows that not only do parents' socioeconomic factors play a role in their children's health, but that influence goes back an extra generation as well."
Basically, university-educated grandparents tend to go on to create higher-earning households than those who did not get a degree, with their work creating an easier, less economically fraught environment for their kids and grandkids to thrive in. The grandchildren then have better access to healthcare, experience less stress, and put their bodies through less traumatic experiences, giving them a younger 'real' age.
"This understanding about the intergenerational nature of transmission of social advantages and health should make us re-think our values. I'd like to see more resources invested in education and health, a factor which shapes offspring health before we are even born," Surachman concluded.
Grandparents impact our lives in numerous ways. It was recently revealed that 74% grandparents are currently providing financial support for their grandchildren while children who have a good relationship with their grandparents have less behavioural and emotional problems, according to new research.
