{"doi":"10.1093/gerona/glab060","title":"Biological Aging Predicts Vulnerability to COVID-19 Severity in UK Biobank Participants","abstract":"BACKGROUND: Age and disease prevalence are the 2 biggest risk factors for Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) symptom severity and death. We therefore hypothesized that increased biological age, beyond chronological age, may be driving disease-related trends in COVID-19 severity. METHODS: Using the UK Biobank England data, we tested whether a biological age estimate (PhenoAge) measured more than a decade prior to the COVID-19 pandemic was predictive of 2 COVID-19 severity outcomes (inpatient test positivity and COVID-19-related mortality with inpatient test-confirmed COVID-19). Logistic regression models were used with adjustment for age at the pandemic, sex, ethnicity, baseline assessment centers, and preexisting diseases/conditions. RESULTS: Six hundred and thirteen participants tested positive at inpatient settings between March 16 and April 27, 2020, 154 of whom succumbed to COVID-19. PhenoAge was associated with increased risks of inpatient test positivity and COVID-19-related mortality (ORMortality = 1.63 per 5 years, 95% CI: 1.43-1.86, p = 4.7 × 10-13) adjusting for demographics including age at the pandemic. Further adjustment for preexisting diseases/conditions at baseline (ORM = 1.50, 95% CI: 1.30-1.73 per 5 years, p = 3.1 × 10-8) and at the early pandemic (ORM = 1.21, 95% CI: 1.04-1.40 per 5 years, p = .011) decreased the association. CONCLUSIONS: PhenoAge measured in 2006-2010 was associated with COVID-19 severity outcomes more than 10 years later. These associations were partly accounted for by prevalent chronic diseases proximate to COVID-19 infection. Overall, our results suggest that aging biomarkers, like PhenoAge may capture long-term vulnerability to diseases like COVID-19, even before the accumulation of age-related comorbid conditions.","journal":"The Journals of Gerontology Series A","year":2021,"id":155951,"datarank":0.6090664515819629,"base_score":4.060443010546419,"endowment":4.060443010546419,"self_citation_contribution":0.6090664515819629,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.6090664515819629,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":57,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9291,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2021-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":230633,"name":"Luke C. Pilling","orcid":"0000-0002-3332-8454","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":230634,"name":"Janice L. Atkins","orcid":"0000-0003-4919-9068","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":230635,"name":"Jane Masoli","orcid":"0000-0003-3794-7065","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":230636,"name":"João Delgado","orcid":"0000-0003-1648-871X","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":437905,"name":"Christopher J. Tignanelli","orcid":"0000-0002-8079-5565","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":225893,"name":"George A. Kuchel","orcid":"0000-0001-8387-7040","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":230637,"name":"David Melzer","orcid":"0000-0002-0170-3838","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":478877,"name":"Kenneth B. Beckman","orcid":"0000-0001-8876-0706","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":218505,"name":"Morgan E. Levine","orcid":"0000-0001-9890-9324","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":230632,"name":"Chia‐Ling Kuo","orcid":"0000-0003-4452-2380","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":28,"raw_metadata":{"citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:44:08.368845Z","pmid":"33684206","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}