Yashin Anatoliy I, Arbeev Konstantin G, Arbeeva Liubov S, Wu Deqing, Akushevich Igor, Kovtun Mikhail, Yashkin Arseniy, Kulminski Alexander, Culminskaya Irina, Stallard Eric, Li Miaozhu, Ukraintseva Svetlana V
The Biodemography of Aging Research Unit, Social Science Research Institute, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA.
The Biodemography of Aging Research Unit, Social Science Research Institute, Duke University, 2024 W. Main Street, Room A102E, Durham, NC, 27705, USA.
Biogerontology. 2016 Feb;17(1):89-107. doi: 10.1007/s10522-015-9594-8. Epub 2015 Aug 18.
Increasing proportions of elderly individuals in developed countries combined with substantial increases in related medical expenditures make the improvement of the health of the elderly a high priority today. If the process of aging by individuals is a major cause of age related health declines then postponing aging could be an efficient strategy for improving the health of the elderly. Implementing this strategy requires a better understanding of genetic and non-genetic connections among aging, health, and longevity. We review progress and problems in research areas whose development may contribute to analyses of such connections. These include genetic studies of human aging and longevity, the heterogeneity of populations with respect to their susceptibility to disease and death, forces that shape age patterns of human mortality, secular trends in mortality decline, and integrative mortality modeling using longitudinal data. The dynamic involvement of genetic factors in (i) morbidity/mortality risks, (ii) responses to stresses of life, (iii) multi-morbidities of many elderly individuals, (iv) trade-offs for diseases, (v) genetic heterogeneity, and (vi) other relevant aging-related health declines, underscores the need for a comprehensive, integrated approach to analyze the genetic connections for all of the above aspects of aging-related changes. The dynamic relationships among aging, health, and longevity traits would be better understood if one linked several research fields within one conceptual framework that allowed for efficient analyses of available longitudinal data using the wealth of available knowledge about aging, health, and longevity already accumulated in the research field.
发达国家中老年人比例不断增加，再加上相关医疗支出大幅增长，使得改善老年人健康成为当今的一项高度优先任务。如果个体的衰老过程是与年龄相关的健康衰退的主要原因，那么延缓衰老可能是改善老年人健康的有效策略。实施这一策略需要更好地理解衰老、健康和长寿之间的遗传和非遗传联系。我们回顾了一些研究领域的进展和问题，这些领域的发展可能有助于分析此类联系。这些领域包括人类衰老和长寿的基因研究、人群在疾病易感性和死亡易感性方面的异质性、塑造人类死亡率年龄模式的因素、死亡率下降的长期趋势以及使用纵向数据的综合死亡率建模。遗传因素在（i）发病/死亡风险、（ii）对生活压力的反应、（iii）许多老年人的多种疾病、（iv）疾病权衡、（v）遗传异质性以及（vi）其他与衰老相关的健康衰退中的动态参与，凸显了需要一种全面、综合的方法来分析与衰老相关变化的上述所有方面的遗传联系。如果将几个研究领域联系在一个概念框架内，利用该研究领域已经积累的关于衰老、健康和长寿的丰富知识，对可用纵向数据进行有效分析，那么衰老、健康和长寿特征之间的动态关系将得到更好的理解。
