Maternal smoking during pregnancy could accelerate aging in the adulthood: evidence from a perspective study in UK Biobank

Background: Maternal smoking during pregnancy (MSDP) is significantly linked to the short- or long-term health of offspring. However, little research has examined whether MSDP affect the aging rate of offspring. Methods: This study used questionnaires to determine out whether the participants' mothers smoked when they were pregnant. For evaluating aging rate, we used the following several outcome measures: telomere length, frailty index, cognitive function, homeostatic dysregulation score, KDM-age, age-related hospitalization rate, premature death, and life expectancy. Result: After adjusting for covariates, we found that the offspring of the MSDP group had significantly shorter telomere length in adulthood by 0.8 % ((3 = -0.008,95%CI:-0.009 to -0.006) compared with non-MSDP group. Compared to the non-MSDP group, participants in MSDP group showed higher levels of homeostatic dysregulation ((3 = 0.015,95%CI: 0.007-0.024) and were frailer ((3 = 0.008,95%CI:0.007-0.009). The KDM age increased by 0.100 due to MSDP ((3 = 0.100,95 % CI:0.018-0.181), and the age acceleration of KDM algorithm also increases significantly (beta = 0.101, 95%CI:0.020-0.183). Additionally, we found that the risk of aging-related hospitalizations was significantly higher than the non-MSDP group by 10.4 %(HR = 1.104,95% CI:1.066-1.144). Moreover, MSDP group had a 12.2 % increased risk of all-cause premature mortality (HR = 1.122,95%CI:1.064-1.182) and a significant risk of lung cancer-specific premature mortality increased by 55.4% (HR = 1.554,95%CI:1.346-1.793). In addition, participants in the MSDP group had significantly decreased cognitive function and shorter life expectancies than those in non-MSDP group. Conclusion: Our findings indicated a significant association between MSPD and accelerated aging, elevated hospitalization rates, increased premature mortality rates, and reduced life expectancies in offspring.