A US trial reveals that additional financial support to low-income mothers can lead to measurable reductions in biological ageing markers in their four-year-old children, highlighting a potential biological benefit of poverty alleviation strategies.
A US trial of monthly cash payments to low-income mothers has found evidence that extra money may do more than ease day-to-day strain: it may also slow biological ageing in their children. Researchers analysing saliva samples from the Baby’s First Years study reported that four-year-old children in families receiving $333 a month showed a slower epigenetic pace of ageing than children whose families received $20 a month.
The study, published in Nature Human Behaviour, builds on a broader question that has long challenged public-health researchers: whether poverty itself can drive harmful changes in child development, rather than simply being linked to them. According to the research team, the difference they observed was modest, but it was measurable and emerged early in life, which they say makes it scientifically important. Laurel Raffington, a developmental psychologist at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, said the result was notable because correlations alone cannot show whether better financial conditions can actually alter biological ageing.
Baby’s First Years is a randomised trial involving 1,000 mothers with low incomes. Four hundred families were assigned to receive $333 a month, while 600 received $20 a month, with payments continuing through the first 76 months of the child’s life. The larger transfer amounted to roughly $4,000 a year, or about an 18% boost to annual income. An earlier report on the study found that mothers receiving the higher amount spent more on child-specific goods and early learning activities, suggesting that the cash was being directed towards children’s development as intended.
The new analysis focused on a saliva-based biomarker called DunedinPACE, which estimates the speed of biological ageing through DNA methylation patterns. The researchers also looked at other epigenetic measures, including one linked to cognition, but did not find clear benefits there. They also reported no obvious effect on mothers’ biological ageing. The team cautioned that the children are still young and that it remains unknown whether the observed difference will translate into better health later in life. Kathryn Paige Harden, a co-author at the University of Texas at Austin, said the finding was striking because differences were already visible by age four.
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