Dr. Cathal Mc Crory
Professor In, Medical Gerontology
Publications and Further Research Outputs
Peer-Reviewed Publications
McCrory, C., Fiorito, G., Ni Cheallaigh, C., Polidoro, S., Karisola, P., Alenius, H., Layte, R., Seeman, T., Vineis, P. & Kenny, RA. , How does socio-economic position (SEP) get biologically embedded? A comparison of allostatic load and the epigenetic clock(s)., Psychoneuroendocrinology, 104, 2019, p64 - 73
McCrory, C., McLoughlin, S., Layte, R., Ni Cheallaigh, C., O'Halloran, A.M, Barros, H., Berkman, L.F., Bochud, M., Crimmins, E., Farrell, M., Fraga, S., GrundyE., Kelly-Irving, M., Petrovic, D., Seeman, T., Stringhini, S., Vollenveider, P., Kenny, R.A, Towards a consensus definition of allostatic load: a multi-cohort, multi-system, multi-biomarker individual participant data (IPD ) meta-analysis, Psychoneuroendocrinology, 2023
McCrory C, Leahy, Ribeiro AI, Fraga S, Barros H, Avendano M, Vineis P, Layte R; LIFEPATH consortium, Maternal educational inequalities in measured body mass index trajectories in three European countries., Maternal educational inequalities in measured body mass index trajectories in three European countries., 2019
Fiorito G, McCrory C, Robinson O, Carmeli C, Rosales CO, Zhang Y, Colicino E, Dugué PA, Artaud F, McKay GJ, Jeong A, Mishra PP, Nøst TH, Krogh V, Panico S, Sacerdote C, Tumino R, Palli D, Matullo G, Guarrera S, Gandini M, Bochud M, Dermitzakis E, Muka T, Schwartz J, Vokonas PS, Just A, Hodge AM, Giles GG, Southey MC, Hurme MA, Young I, McKnight AJ, Kunze S, Waldenberger M, Peters A, Schwettmann L, Lund E, Baccarelli A, Milne RL, Kenny RA, Elbaz A, Brenner H, Kee F, Voortman T, Probst-Hensch N, Lehtimäki T, Elliot P, Stringhini S, Vineis P, Polidoro S; BIOS Consortium; Lifepath consortium., Socioeconomic position, lifestyle habits and biomarkers of epigenetic aging: a multi-cohort analysis., Aging, 11, (7), 2019, p2045 - 2070
Crimmins EM, Hernandez B, Potter C, Kim JK, Higgins-Chen A, Kenny RA, O'Halloran AM, McGuinness B, Smyth LJ, Hill C, Fiorito G, Faul J, McKnight AJ, McCrory C., Epigenetic Clocks Relate to Four Age-Related Health Outcomes Similarly across Three Countries., The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences, 2025, pglaf036
McCrory, C., Berkman, L., Nolan, H., O'Leary, N., Foley, M., & Kenny, R.A., Speed of Heart Rate Recovery in Response to Orthostatic Challenge: A Strong Risk Marker of Mortality., Circulation Research, 119, (5), 2016, p666 - 675
McCrory, C., Berkman, L., Moore, P.V., & Kenny, R.A. , What Explains Socioeconomic Differences in the Speed of Heart Rate Recovery to Postural Challenge?, Journals of Gerontology: Medical Sciences, 72, (12), 2017, p1717 - 1723
McCrory, C., O'Leary, N., Fraga, S., Ribeiro, A.I., Barros, H., Kartiosuo, N. Raitakari, O., Kivimaki, M., Vineis, & Layte, R. for the Lifepath Consortium, Socioeconomic differences in children's growth trajectories from infancy to early adulthood: evidence from four European countries, Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 71, (10), 2017, p981 - 989
Stinghini, S., Carmeli, C., Jokela, M., Avendano, M., McCrory, C. et al., Socioeconomic status, non-communicable disease risk factors, and walking speed in older adults: multi-cohort population based study, British Medical Journal, 360, 2018
Fiorito, G., Polidoro, S. Dugue, P.A., Kivimaki, M., Ponzi, E., Matullo, G., Guarrera, S., Assummaa, M.B. Georgiadis, P., Kyrtopoulos, S.O. Krogh, V. Palli, D., Panico, S., Sacerdote, C. Tumino, R., Chadeau-Hyam, M., Stringhini, S., Severi, G., Hodge, A.M., Giles, G.G., Marioni, R., Linnér, R.K. O'Halloran, A., Kenny, R.A., Layte, R., McCrory, C., Baglietto, L., Milne, R.L., Vineis, P. (2017)., Social adversity and epigenetic aging: a multi-cohort study on socioeconomic differences in peripheral blood DNA methylation., Scientific Reports, 7, (1), 2017, p16391 - 16395
Nolan A, McCrory C, Moore P, Personality and preventive healthcare utilisation: Evidence from the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing., Preventive Medicine, 120, 2019, p107 - 112
Canney, M., Leahy, S., Scarlett, S., Kenny, R.A,, Little, M., O'Seaghdha, C., McCrory, C, Kidney disease in women is associated with disadvantaged childhood socioeconomic position, American Journal of Nephrology, 47, (5), 2018, p292 - 299
Layte, R & McCrory, C., Fiscal Crises and Personal Troubles: The Great Recession in Ireland and Family Processes, Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 53, (9), 2018, p987 - 1001
McCrory, C., Kenny R.A., Rebuking the concept of ageing as a disease., The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, 6, (10), 2018, p768-
McCrory, C. Dooley, C., Layte, R., & Kenny RA, The Lasting Legacy of Childhood Adversity for Disease Risk In Later Life, Health Psychology, 34, (7), 2015, p687-696
Layte, R., Bennett, A., McCrory, C., & Kearney, J., Social class variation in the predictors of rapid growth in infancy and obesity at age three years, International Journal of Obesity, 38, (1), 2014, p82 - 90
McCrory, C., Finucane, C., O'Hare, C., Frewen, J., Nolan, H., Layte, R., Kearney, P., & Kenny, R.A., Social Disadvantage and Social Isolation are Associated with a Higher Resting Heart Rate: Evidence from the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing, Journals of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 71, (3), 2016, p463 - 473
Mosca, I., & McCrory, C. , Personality and Wealth Accumulation Among Older Couples: Do Dispositional Characteristics Pay Dividends? , Journal of Economic Psychology, 56, 2016, p1 - 19
McCrory, C. & Layte, R., Prenatal Exposure to Maternal Smoking and Childhood Behavioural Problems, Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 40, (8), 2012, p1277 - 1288
Reinhard, E., Layte, R., McCrory, C., Panico, L., & Avendano, M. , The Great Recession and the Health of Young Children: A Fixed Effects Analysis in Ireland, American Journal of Epidemiology, 2018, pin press
Henretta, J.C., & McCrory, C., Childhood Circumstances and Mid-life Functional Mobility, Journal of Aging & Health, 28, (3), 2016, p440 - 459
O'Hare, C., McCrory, C., O'Connell, M.D.L., & Kenny, R.A., Sub-clinical Orthostatic Hypotension is Associated with Greater Subjective Memory Impairment in Older Adults., International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 32, (4), 2017, p429 - 438
McCrory, C., & Layte, R., Breastfeeding and risk of overweight and obesity at nine years of age, Social Science and Medicine, 75, (2), 2012, p323 - 330
d'Errico A. Ricceri, F. Stringhini, S., Carmeli, C., Kivimaki, M. Bartley M., McCrory, C. Bochud, M. Vollenweider, P. Tumino, R., Goldberg, M. Zins, M., Barros, H., Giles, G., Costa, G., Severi, G., & Vineis, P., Socioeconomic indicators in epidemiologic research: a practical example from the LIFEPATH study, PLOS One, 12, (5), 2017, pe0178071
McCrory, C. & Murray, A., The effect of breastfeeding on neuro-development in infancy, Maternal and Child Health Journal, 17, (9), 2013, p680 - 688
Vineis, P., Avendano-Pabon, M., Barros, H., Chadeau-Hyam, M., Costa, G., Dijmarescu, M., Delpierre, C., D'Errico, A, Fraga, S., Giles, G., Goldberg, M., Zins, M., Kelly-Irving, M., Kivimaki, M., Lang, T., Layte, R., Mackenbach, J., Marmot, M., McCrory, C., Carmeli, C., Milne, R.L., Muennig, P., Nusselder, W., Polidoro, S., Ricceri, F., Robinson, O., Stringhini, S. & The LIFEPATH Consortium, The biology of inequalities in health: the LIFEPATH project., Longitudinal and Life Course Studies,, 8, (4), 2017, p417 - 439
McCrory, C. & McNally, S., The effect of pregnancy intention on maternal prenatal behaviours and parent and child health: results of an Irish cohort study, Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology, 27, (2), 2013, p208 - 215
'Hare, C., McCrory, C., O'Leary, N., O'Brien, H., & Kenny, R.A. , Childhood Trauma and Lifetime Syncope Burden Among Older Adults. , Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 97, 2017, p63 - 69
McCrory, C. & Layte, R., Testing competing models of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire's (SDQ's) factor structure for the parent-informant instrument, Personality and Individual Differences, 52, (8), 2012, p882 - 887
Humphreys, G.W., Duta, M.D., Montana, L., Demeyere, N., McCrory, C., Rohr, J., Kahn, K., Tollman, S. & Berkman, L. , Cognitive Function in Low-Income and Low-Literacy Settings: Validation of the Tablet-Based Oxford Cognitive Screen in the Health and Aging in Africa: A Longitudinal Study of an INDEPTH Community in South Africa (HAALSI)., Journals of Gerontology (Series B): Psychological Sciences & Social Sciences, 72, (1), 2017, p38 - 50
Layte, Richard; McCrory, Cathal, Paediatric Chronic Illness and Educational Failure: the Role of Emotional and Behavioural Problems, Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 48, (8), 2013, p1307 - 1316
Layte, Richard; McCrory, Cathal, Growing Up in Ireland - National Longitudinal Study of Children: Overweight and Obesity Among 9-Year-Olds, Dublin, Stationery Office, November , 2011
McCrory, C. & Layte, R., The effect of breastfeeding on children's educational test scores at nine years of age: Results of an Irish cohort study, Social Science & Medicine, 72, (5), 2011, p1515 - 1521
McCrory, Cathal; Murray, Aisling, The Effect of Breastfeeding on Neuro-Development in Infancy, Maternal and Child Health Journal, 17, (9), 2013, p1680 - 1688
Williams, James; Murray, Aisling; McCrory, Cathal; McNally, Sinéad , Growing Up In Ireland: Development from Birth to Three Years, Dublin, Stationery Office / Department of Children and Youth Affairs, September, 2013
McCrory, C., & Cooper, C., Overlap between different visual inspection time tasks and general intelligence., Learning and Individual Differences, 17, (2), 2007, p187 - 192
McCrory, C., & Cooper, C., The relationship between three auditory inspection time tasks and general intelligence, Personality and Individual Differences, 38, (8), 2005, p1835 - 1845
Layte, R. and McCrory, C. , Maternal Health Behaviours and Child Growth in Infancy, 4, Dublin, Dept. of Children and Youth Affairs, February, 2015
O'Hare C, McCrory C, O'Leary N, O'Brien H, Kenny R.A, Childhood trauma and lifetime syncope burden among older adults, Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 97, 2017, p63 - 69
Layte, R. and McCrory, C., Ni Cheallaigh, C., Bourke, N., Kivimaki, M., Ribeiro, A.I, Stringhini, S. and Vineis, P., A Comparative Analysis of the Status Anxiety Hypothesis of Socio-Economic Inequalities in Health Based on 18,349 individuals in Four Countries and Five Cohort Studies, Scientific Reports, Online, 2019, p1 - 6
McNally, S., McCrory, C., Quigley, J. & Murray, A., Decomposing the social gradient in children's vocabulary skills at 3 years of age: a mediation analysis using data from a large representative cohort study, Infant Behaviour & Development, 57, 2019
Canney M, Induruwage D, Sahota A, McCrory C, Hladunewich MA, Gill J, Barbour SJ., Socioeconomic Position and Incidence of Glomerular Diseases., Clinical journal of the American Society of Nephrology : CJASN, 15, (3), 2020, p367-374
Vineis P, Delpierre C, Castagné R, Fiorito G, McCrory C, Kivimaki M, Stringhini S, Carmeli C, Kelly-Irving M., Health inequalities: Embodied evidence across biological layers., Soc Sci Med, 246, 2020, p112781
Cathal McCrory, Giovanni Fiorito, Sinead McLoughlin, Silvia Polidoro, Cliona Ni Cheallaigh, Nollaig Bourke, Piia Karisola, Harri Alenius, Paolo Vineis, Richard Layte, Rose Anne Kenny, Epigenetic clocks and allostatic load reveal potential sex-specific drivers of biological ageing, Journal of Gerontology: Biological Sciences, 2019
Ribeiro A.I., Fraga S., Correia-Costa L., McCrory C., Barros H., Socioeconomic disadvantage and health in early childhood: a population-based birth cohort study from Portugal, Pediatric Research, 2020
Céline De Looze, Wilby Williamson, Rebecca Hirst, John O'Connor, Silvin Knight, Cathal McCrory, Daniel Carey, Rose‐Anne Kenny, Impaired orthostatic heart rate recovery is associated with smaller thalamic volume: Results from The Irish Longitudinal Study on Aging (TILDA), Human Brain Mapping, 2020
Jessica E Laine, Valéria T Baltar, Silvia Stringhini, Layte, R., The LIFEPATH Consortium, Reducing socio-economic inequalities in all-cause mortality: a counterfactual mediation approach, International Journal of Epidemiology, 2019
Petrovic D, Haba-Rubio J, de Mestral Vargas C, Kelly-Irving M, Vineis P, Kivimäki M, Nyberg S, Gandini M, Bochud M, Vollenweider P, d'Errico A, Barros H, Fraga S, Goldberg M, Zins M, Steptoe A, Delpierre C, Heinzer R, Carmeli C, Chadeau-Hyam M, Stringhini S, Lifepath Consortium ., The contribution of sleep to social inequalities in cardiovascular disorders: a multi-cohort study., Cardiovascular research, 2019
McCrory C, McLoughlin S, O'Halloran AM, Socio-Economic Position Under the Microscope: Getting 'Under the Skin' and into the Cells, Current Epidemiology Reports, 6, (4), 2019, p403 - 411
Vineis, Paolo, Avendano-Pabon, Mauricio, Barros, Henrique, Bartley, Mel, Carmeli, Cristian, Carra, Luca, Chadeau-Hyam, Marc, Costa, Giuseppe, Delpierre, Cyrille, D'Errico, Angelo, Fraga, Silvia, Giles, Graham, Goldberg, Marcel, Kelly-Irving, Michelle, Kivimaki, Mika, Lepage, Benoit, Lang, Thierry, Layte, Richard, MacGuire, Frances, Mackenbach, Johan P., Marmot, Michael, McCrory, Cathal, Milne, Roger L., Muennig, Peter, Nusselder, Wilma, Petrovic, Dusan, Polidoro, Silvia, Ricceri, Fulvio, Robinson, Oliver, Stringhini, Silvia, Zins, Marie, Special Report: The Biology of Inequalities in Health: The Lifepath Consortium, Frontiers in Public Health, 8, 2020
Leahy, Siobhan, Canney, Mark, Scarlett, Siobhan, Anne Kenny, Rose, McCrory, Cathal, Life-course social class is associated with later-life diabetes prevalence in women: evidence from the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing, Longitudinal and Life Course Studies, 2020
McLoughlin S, Kenny RA, McCrory C., Does the choice of Allostatic Load scoring algorithm matter for predicting age-related health outcomes?, Psychoneuroendocrinology, 120, 2020, p104789
McDowell, Cillian P., Wilson, Kathryn E., Monroe, Derek C., McCrory, Cathal, Kenny, Rose Anne, Herring, Matthew P., Physical activity partially mediates associations between "Big" personality traits and incident generalized anxiety disorder: Findings from the irish longitudinal study on ageing, Journal of Affective Disorders, 277, 2020, p46-52
McLoughlin S, Kenny RA, McCrory C., Critiquing a study or a paradigm?: In response to: The Promise of Allostatic Load Rests Upon Strategic Operationalization, Scoring, and Targeted Interventions., Psychoneuroendocrinology, 123, 2021, p104881
Rocha V, Fraga S, Moreira C, Carmeli C, Lenoir A, Steptoe A, Giles G, Goldberg M, Zins M, Kivimäki M, Vineis P, Vollenweider P, Barros H, Stringhini S, LIFEPATH Consortium, members of the LIFEPATH Consortium (in alphabetical order):., Life-course socioeconomic disadvantage and lung function: a multicohort study of 70"496 individuals., The European respiratory journal, 57, (3), 2021
McLoughlin S, Kenny RA, McCrory C., Psychosocial adversity and allostatic load burden in midlife and older ages., Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association, 40, (7), 2021, p468-471
McCrory C, Fiorito G, Hernandez B, Polidoro S, O'Halloran AM, Hever A, Ni Cheallaigh C, Lu AT, Horvath S, Vineis P, Kenny RA., GrimAge outperforms other epigenetic clocks in the prediction of age-related clinical phenotypes and all-cause mortality., The Journals of Gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences, 76, (5), 2021, p741 - 749
Maurel M, Castagné R, Berger E, Bochud M, Chadeau-Hyam M, Fraga S, Gandini M, Hutri-Kähönen N, Jalkanen S, Kivimäki M, Marmot M, McCrory C, Preisig M, Raitakari O, Ricceri F, Salmi M, Steptoe A, Vineis P, Delpierre C, Kelly-Irving M., Patterning of educational attainment across inflammatory markers: Findings from a multi-cohort study., Brain, behavior, and immunity, 90, 2020, p303-310
McCrory C, Fiorito G, O'Halloran AM, Polidoro S, Vineis P, Kenny RA., Early life adversity and age acceleration at mid-life and older ages indexed using the next-generation GrimAge and Pace of Aging epigenetic clocks., Psychoneuroendocrinology, 137, 2021, p105643
Hernández B, Voll S, Lewis NA, McCrory C, White A, Stirland L, Kenny RA, Reilly R, Hutton CP, Griffith LE, Kirkland SA, Terrera GM, Hofer SM., Comparisons of disease cluster patterns, prevalence and health factors in the USA, Canada, England and Ireland., BMC Public Health, 21, (1), 2021, p1674
Fiorito G, Pedron S, Ochoa-Rosales C, McCrory C, Polidoro S, Zhang Y, Dugué PA, Ratliff S, Zhao WN, McKay GJ, Costa G, Solinas MG, Mullan Harris K, Tumino R, Grioni S, Ricceri F, Panico S, Brenner H, Schwettmann L, Waldenberger M, Matias-Garcia PR, Peters A, Hodge A, Giles GG, Schmitz LL, Levine M, Smith JA, Liu Y, Kee F, Young IS, McGuinness B, McKnight AJ, van Meurs J, Voortman T, Kenny RA, Vineis P, Carmeli C., The role of epigenetic clocks in explaining educational inequalities in mortality: a multi-cohort study and meta-analysis., The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences, 2022
Ribeiro AI, Fraga S, Severo M, Kelly-Irving M, Delpierre C, Stringhini S, Kivimaki M, Joost S, Guessous I, Severi G, Giles G, Sacerdote C, Vineis P, Barros H, LIFEPATH Consortium., Association of neighbourhood disadvantage and individual socioeconomic position with all-cause mortality: a longitudinal multicohort analysis. , The lancet. Public health, 7, (5), 2022, pe447-e457
McLoughlin S, Präg P, Bartley M, Kenny RA, McCrory C., Intergenerational social mobility and allostatic load in mid-life and older ages; a diagonal reference modelling approach., The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences, 2022, pgbac122
Cappozzo A, McCrory C, Robinson O, Freni Sterrantino A, Sacerdote C, Krogh V, Panico S, Tumino R, Iacoviello L, Ricceri F, Sieri S, Chiodini P, McKay GJ, McKnight AJ, Kee F, Young IS, McGuinness B, Crimmins EM, Arpawong TE, Kenny RA, O'Halloran A, Polidoro S, Solinas G, Vineis P, Ieva F, Fiorito G., A blood DNA methylation biomarker for predicting short-term risk of cardiovascular events., Clinical epigenetics, 14, (1), 2022, p121
Petrovic D, Carmeli C, Sandoval JL, Bodinier B, Chadeau-Hyam M, Schrempft S, Ehret G, Dhayat NA, Ponte B, Pruijm M, Vineis P, Gonseth-Nusslé S, Guessous I, McCrory C, Bochud M, Stringhini S., Life-course socioeconomic factors are associated with markers of epigenetic aging in a population-based study., Psychoneuroendocrinology, 147, 2022, p105976
De Looze C, Demnitz N, Knight S, Carey D, Meaney J, Kenny RA, McCrory C., Examining the impact of socio-economic position (SEP) across the life course on cognitive function and brain structure in healthy ageing., The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences, 2023, pglad068
Azizi Z, Hirst RJ, O' Dowd A, McCrory C, Kenny RA, Newell FN, Setti A., Evidence for an association between allostatic load and multisensory integration in middle-aged and older adults., Archives of gerontology and geriatrics, 116, 2023, p105155
McCarthy K, O'Halloran AM, Fallon P, Kenny RA, McCrory C., Metabolic syndrome accelerates epigenetic ageing in older adults: Findings from The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA)., Experimental gerontology, 183, 2023, p112314
De Looze C, McCrory C, O'Halloran A, Polidoro S, Anne Kenny R, Feeney J., Mind versus body: Perceived stress and biological stress are independently related to cognitive decline., Brain, behavior, and immunity, 115, 2024, p696 - 704
Robertson T, Benzeval M, Betzer M, Booker C, Castagné R, Delpierre C, Gallagher I, Kelly-Irving M, McCrory C, Morris T, Narimatsu E & Paval R, A glossary for social-to-biological research, Longitudinal and Life Course Studies, 2024, p1 - 47
Rosická AM, Teckentrup V, Fittipaldi S, Ibanez A, Pringle A, Gallagher E, Hanlon AK, Claus N, McCrory C, Lawlor B, Naci L, Gillan CM., Modifiable dementia risk factors associated with objective and subjective cognition., Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association, 2024
Brennan MM, Cavallaro M, Mongan D, Doyle A, Millar SR, Zgaga L, Smyth BP, Nixon E, Ivers JH, Galvin B, Walsh C, McCrory C, McCarthy ND., Factors Associated With Cocaine Use at 17 and 20 Years Old: A Longitudinal Analysis of a Nationally Representative Cohort., The Journal of adolescent health : official publication of the Society for Adolescent Medicine, 2025, pS1054-139X(24)00551-2
Xu K, Hernández B, Arpawong TE, Camuzeaux S, Chekmeneva E, Crimmins EM, Elliott P, Fiorito G, Jiménez B, Kenny RA, McCrory C, McLoughlin S, Pinto R, Sands C, Vineis P, Lau CE, Robinson O., Assessing Metabolic Ageing via DNA Methylation Surrogate Markers: A Multicohort Study in Britain, Ireland and the USA., Aging cell, 2025, pe14484
Belinda Hernandez, Cathal McCrory, Rose Anne Kenny, Aisling O'Halloran, A Biomarker Signature Associated With Future Functional Decline And Outcomes On The Frailty-Disability Cascade, Age and Ageing, 53, (Supplement_4), Oxford University Press, 2024, ppafae178. 024
Celine De Looze , Cathal McCrory , Aisling O'Halloran , Silvia Polidoro , Rose Anne Kenny, Joanne Feeney, Mind versus body: Perceived stress and biological stress are independently related to cognitive decline, Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, 115, 2024, p696-704
O'Hare C, Mccrory C, O'Connell M.D.L, Kenny R.A, Sub-clinical orthostatic hypotension is associated with greater subjective memory impairment in older adults, International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 32, (4), 2017, p429-438
Klopack ET, Hernandez B, Potter C, Faul JD, Hill C, Smyth L, Mitchell C, McCrory C, Kenny RA, McKnight AJ, McGuinness B, Crimmins EM, Remarkable concordance in associations between epigenetic clocks and health behaviors across three countries., Social science & medicine (1982), 2025
Non-Peer-Reviewed Publications
Social Variation in Child Health and Development: A Life Course Approach in, editor(s)James Williams, Elizabeth Nixon, Emer Smyth, Dorothy Watson , Cherishing All the Children Equally? Ireland 100 years on from the Easter Rising, Dublin, Oak Tree Press, 2016, pp194 - 214, [Layte, R & McCrory, C.]
Research Expertise
Description
My research utilizes population-level data to explore the pathways, processes and mechanisms through which variation in exposure to risk and protective factors over the life course precipitates earlier disease and mortality among more socially disadvantaged groups. Since 2006, I have been involved with the two flagship national longitudinal studies of children and older people in Ireland: Growing Up in Ireland (GUI) and the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA). Since May 2015 I have also been involved with a large European consortium on a large European Union funded Horizon 2020 project called LIFEPATH with 15 partner institutions across the UK, Europe and the US. I was the recipient of an Emerging Investigator Award from the Health Research Board (HRB) of Ireland in December 2017 to explore social differentials in health and mortality using putative markers of accelerated ageing. The ALLOSTAT project will chart the social distribution of neuroendocrine, inflammatory, cardiovascular and metabolic markers in TILDA and other international ageing datasets; and examine the predictive utility of a composite index derived from this battery of biomarkers for identifying emergent disease states, frailty and mortality. The project will also examine the magnitude and degree of association between Allostatic Load and other putative markersProjects
- Title
- Soci-Omics
- Funding Agency
- Irish Research Council
- Title
- Social circumstances and epigenomics supporting health in 3 countries
- Funding Agency
- National Institutes of health / Science Foundation Ireland
- Date From
- Oct 2020
- Date To
- Oct 2025
- Title
- The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA) core grant
- Summary
- Provides the survey and administrative infrastructure for waves 5-6 of the TILDA study
- Funding Agency
- Health Research Board
- Date From
- 2017
- Date To
- 2022
- Title
- The ALLOSTAT Project
- Summary
- A consistent finding in the epidemiological literature is that health is socially patterned. On average, individuals from more disadvantaged social backgrounds will develop diseases earlier and will die earlier compared with their more advantaged peers. So ubiquitous is the association between health and wealth that it has been referred to as a "fundamental" cause of disease. But what is it about low socio-economic status (SES) that makes a person growing up disadvantaged more likely to experience disease, to experience earlier onset of disease, and more likely to suffer premature mortality? Understanding how social group-based differences in SES become biologically embedded in the tissues and organs of the body over the life course is the focus of this project. We will develop a measure for estimating the impact of life course stresses on the body and explore the extent to which this construct explains differences in longevity between different SES groups. It is anticipated that this project will lead to the identification of modifiable risk and resilience factors that contribute to accelerated ageing and will help inform societal approaches to reduce health inequalities and promote healthy ageing.
- Funding Agency
- Health Research Board
- Date From
- December 2017
- Date To
- December 2021
- Title
- Whole genome sequencing of the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA) cohort
- Summary
- The proposed WGS investment will be layered upon and leverage complementary `omic datasets in TILDA. A primary aim of TILDA is to identify the biological and environmental factors that contribute to trajectories of ageing and chronic disease development over time. `Omic datasets generated to date in TILDA include epigenetics (n=950, Illumina EPIC v1 850K DNA methylation platform), telomeres (n=5400, Leukocyte Telomere Length, using monochrome multiplex quantitative PCR, Cawthon et al, 20091), metabolomics (n=1400, >700 metabolites generated by reverse phase chromatography, proteomics (n=4960, 26 biomarkers, 9 clinically measured and 17 measured on MSD V-Plex and UPlex enzyme-linked immunosorbent multiplex assays), micronutrients (n=4900, five vitamin and antioxidant biomarkers measured by LC-MS/MS or HPLC), hormones (n=2500, five stress and sex hormones measured by HPLC-MS), SARS-CoV-2 antibodies (n=3500, antibodies against five SARS-Cov-2 antigens and four seasonal coronavirus antigens measured by a Luminex bead-based multiplex Luciferase-Linked ImmunoSorbent Assay) and viral exposure histories (n=540, >9,000 epitopes from all known human viruses using CDI VirScan Phage ImmunoPrecipitation Sequencing (PhIP-Seq) platform). We will WGS 700 individuals, focusing on the overlap between the methylation, telomere and proteomic platforms (n=916). 588 of these samples also overlap with the metabolomic dataset. CRT investment will build on this foundation, with the WGS data informing on the underlying genetic architecture of ageing, how architecture interacts with lifestyle and environmental exposures throughout the life-course, ultimately influencing biological ageing in Ireland.
- Funding Agency
- SFI
- Date From
- 2025
- Title
- A single supplier framework agreement for Secondary data analysis of GUI datasets for an alcohol and other drugs study under a three-year agreement to the HRB
- Summary
- This secondary data analysis project using the Growing Up in Ireland 98 cohort will identify factors predicting onset and patterns of drug use among young people in Ireland and the impact of this drug use on young people in order to identify potential areas for intervention.
- Funding Agency
- Health Research Board
- Title
- Premature Ageing in Long-term Homeless Adults (PATH)
- Summary
- The number of homeless adults in Ireland is rising. Homeless people have more chronic illnesses and a shorter life-expectancy than people who have somewhere secure to live. We have carried out a pilot study showing that homeless people have dementia, frailty and other diseases associated with ageing at a much younger age than expected. We will now carry out an in-depth study to see whether homeless people are ageing more rapidly. This will give those who provide accommodation and care for homeless people the information they need to plan what buildings, staff and healthcare they should provide in the future for homeless people. It will also give us a better understanding of what factors lead to premature or accelerated ageing in homeless people.
- Funding Agency
- Health Research Board
- Date From
- September 2018
- Date To
- September 2020
- Title
- The impact of socioeconomic position (SEP) across the life course on brain structure in healthy ageing
- Funding Agency
- Global Brain Health Institute
- Title
- SocialPaths: Sex-specific socioeconomic pathways to cardiovascular disease risk across the life course
- Funding Agency
- Health Research Board
- Title
- The development of data infrastructures to support on-going analyses of the impact of reimbursed medicines on healthcare service utilisation in Ireland
- Summary
- In Ireland, the current process for the assessment of the expected value of new medicines involves predictions, made by experts, about how the medicines are likely to affect patients' health outcomes and how much the medicines will cost the health-state payer. According to this assessment a recommendation is made, to the state decision makers, on whether the medicine in question is likely to be effective and to provide value for money. The decision maker uses this information when deciding if the medicine should be funded for use by patients in Ireland. However, these predictions are often associated with uncertainty and the true value of the medicine is often not measured after if has been funded for use. This research programme will use national databases to assess the health outcomes actually experienced by patients and the costs actually incurred by the health-state-payer. We will bring together data from the national medicines-funding database (PCRS), the National Cancer Registry of Ireland (NCRI) and the Irish Longitudinal Study of Aging (TILDA) to inform the use, health outcomes and costs associated with medicines in Ireland. The main health conditions, for close examination here, will be cancer and chronic diseases. These are considered to be the areas of highest spend on medicines. The research team includes experts from Trinity College Dublin, the National Centre for Pharmacoeconomics, the NCRI, TILDA and national and international collaborators. The aim of the research is to inform national decision- making in relation to sustainable medicine policies. We will do this by providing evidence on the predicted and realised health outcomes associated with new and existing medicines. The team will investigate this over five work packages. In the final work package we will deliver recommendations that take into account both national and international evidence.
- Funding Agency
- Health Research Board
- Date From
- 2024
- Date To
- 2027
Recognition
Awards and Honours
Editors Choice Award - Journals of Gerontology: Biological Sciences
Editors Choice Award - Psychoneuroendocrinology
Memberships
Research Affiliate, Economic and Social Research Institute
Member of the Society for Longitudinal and Life Course Studies (SLLS)
Member of the Expert Advisory Group - Growing Up in Ireland