UK Biobank cross-sectional study links more prior surgeries to slightly higher PhenoAge acceleration
In up to 472,279 UK Biobank participants, each additional surgery in the 1, 3 or 5 years before baseline was associated with modestly higher PhenoAge acceleration; this cross-sectional analysis shows associations, not causes. [1]
Automatic summary · not editorially reviewed
The key findings
Surgical exposure was defined as procedures within 1, 3 and 5 years before baseline. [1]
Each additional surgery within 1 year was associated with 0.46 years higher PhenoAge acceleration on average. [1]
The authors report associations that varied with surgical burden, timing and baseline physiological reserve. [1]
The source at a glance
- Study type / format
- Cross-sectional analysis (abstract).
- Population / context
- Up to 472,279 UK Biobank participants.
- Summary based on
- Study abstract
- Original publication
- September 10, 2026
Surgeries before baseline and two aging markers
The study asked how surgical procedures relate to biological age. Surgical exposure meant operations within 1, 3 and 5 years before baseline. Biological aging was measured two ways: PhenoAge acceleration, the residual from regressing PhenoAge built from several clinical biomarkers on chronological age, and leukocyte telomere length measured by a validated qPCR method.
Supporting source [1]
Modest PhenoAge differences per additional surgery
After full adjustment, each additional surgery within 1, 3 and 5 years was associated, on average, with 0.46 (95% CI 0.43–0.49), 0.26 (95% CI 0.24–0.27) and 0.20 (95% CI 0.19–0.21) years higher PhenoAge acceleration, respectively. Subgroup analyses examined whether age, frailty, comorbidity burden and depression modified these associations.
Supporting source [1]
Cross-sectional design limits causal reading
The authors describe cumulative surgical exposure as associated with modest but detectable differences in PhenoAge acceleration, varying with surgical burden, timing and baseline physiological reserve. Because this is a cross-sectional analysis of an abstract, it cannot show that surgery caused the differences, and the full text was not reviewed.
Supporting source [1]
How to interpret this
Abstract only; the full text was not reviewed. This is a cross-sectional analysis, so the reported associations do not establish causation, and the abstract does not report telomere length results.
Based on the study abstract; the full paper, tables and supplementary data were not reviewed.
Source & supporting passages
Duan W, Li MJ, Gu HW, Hao R, Ji MH, Yang JJ. · europepmc.org · September 10, 2026