@misc{10481/82308,
year = {2023},
month = {4},
url = {https://hdl.handle.net/10481/82308},
abstract = {Introduction: Helping others within and beyond the family has been related
to living a healthy and long life. Compassion is a prosocial personality trait
characterized by concern for another person who is suffering and the motivation
to help. The current study examines whether epigenetic aging is a potential
biological mechanism that explains the link between prosociality and longevity.
Methods: We used data from the Young Finns Study that follows six birth-cohorts
from age 3–18 to 19–49. Trait-like compassion for others was measured with the
Temperament and Character Inventory in the years 1997 and 2001. Epigenetic
age acceleration and telomere length were measured with five DNA methylation
(DNAm) indicators (DNAmAgeHorvath, IEAA_Hannum, EEAA_Hannum,
DNAmPhenoAge, and DNAmTL) based on blood drawn in 2011. We controlled
for sex, socioeconomic status in childhood and adulthood, and body-mass index.
Results and discussion: An association between higher compassion in 1997 and a
less accelerated DNAmPhenoAge, which builds on previous work on phenotypic
aging, approached statistical significance in a sex-adjusted model (n = 1,030;
b = −0.34; p = 0.050). Compassion in 1997 predicted less accelerated epigenetic
aging over and above the control variables (n = 843; b = −0.47; p = 0.016). There was
no relationship between compassion in 2001 (n = 1108/910) and any of the other
four studied epigenetic aging indicators. High compassion for others might indeed
influence whether an individual’s biological age is lower than their chronological
age. The conducted robustness checks partially support this conclusion, yet
cannot rule out that there might be a broader prosocial trait behind the findings.
The observed associations are interesting but should be interpreted as weak
requiring replication.},
organization = {Academy of Finland	286284
134309
126925
121584
124282
129378
117787
41071
322098},
organization = {Social Insurance Institution of Finland},
organization = {Competitive State Research Financing of the Expert Responsibility area of Kuopio, Tampere},
organization = {Competitive State Research Financing of the Expert Responsibility area of Kuopio, Tampere},
organization = {Juho Vainio Foundation},
organization = {Paavo Nurmi Foundation},
organization = {Finnish Foundation for Cardiovascular Research},
organization = {Finnish Cultural Foundation
Finnish IT center for science},
organization = {Sigrid Juselius Foundation},
organization = {Tampere Tuberculosis Foundation},
organization = {Yrjoe Jahnsson Foundation},
organization = {Emil Aaltonen Foundation},
organization = {Signe and Ane Gyllenberg Foundation},
organization = {Diabetes Research Foundation of the Finnish Diabetes Association},
organization = {European Commission},
organization = {European Research Council (ERC)
European Commission},
organization = {Tampere University Hospital Supporting Foundation},
organization = {Finnish Society of Clinical Chemistry		
755320 848146
742927},
publisher = {Frontiers},
keywords = {Compassion},
keywords = {Temperament and character inventory},
keywords = {Dna methylation},
keywords = {Prosocial personality},
keywords = {Longevity},
title = {The relationship of trait-like compassion with epigenetic aging: The population-based prospective Young Finns Study},
doi = {10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1018797},
author = {Dobewall, Henrik and Zwir Nawrocki, Jorge Sergio Igor},
}