Biological Age versus Chronological Age in the Prevention of Age Associated Diseases

Abstract

Aging is associated with an increasing incidence of major diseases among which cancer, cardiovascular, neurodegenerative, metabolic and autoimmune diseases. Primary prevention and early diagnosis of these diseases have a dramatic impact on incidence, outcome and quality of life and are commonly applied as age-dependent indications based on evidence of efficacy for specific groups of the aging population. They likely contribute to the observed increase in life expectancy through the reduction of incidence and the retardation of onset of age-associated diseases. In the present article, we develop the hypothesis that age-dependent preventative measures and diagnostic screenings might perform better if the biological age would be used instead of the chronological age for the definition of the population to be included. This is based on the observation that there are individual differences in the age-associated decline in performance that are reflected by measurable biological indicators, such as telomere length, signal joint T-cell receptor rearrangement excision circle, and specific DNA-methylation and gene expression events.