Dr Lauren Schmitz, an economist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, has co-authored a paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences detailing the findings of an epigenetics study that found children born during the historic recession in the USA have markers of accelerated ageing later in life.
Researchers have found that the cells of people who were conceived during the Great Depression, which lasted from 1929 to 1939 and, at its height, saw about 25 percent of the US workforce unemployed, show signs of accelerated ageing.
Dr Schmitz commented: 'What we see from this study is that socio-economic structural inequalities that make it difficult for women to access the care they need might have long-term consequences… With social inequality on the rise around the world, the findings also highlight how paid parental leave, welfare payments and other policies and programmes can help to blunt health disparities in the future.'
Find out more in the Nature article: 'How the Great Depression shaped people’s DNA'.
