ArticleAmerican journal of epidemiology2018
Eleven Telomere, Epigenetic Clock, and Biomarker-Composite Quantifications of Biological Aging: Do They Measure the Same Thing?
Article in American journal of epidemiology, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 295 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
295 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 416 citations in OpenAlex.
- Post-traumatic stress disorder moderates the association between BrainAge acceleration and GrimAge acceleration.Neurobiology of aging · 2026Pooled it
- Individual and additive effects of vitamin D, omega-3 and exercise on DNA methylation clocks of biological aging in older adults from the DO-HEALTH trial.Nature aging · 2025Trial
- Effect of long-term caloric restriction on telomere length in healthy adults: CALERIE™ 2 trial analysis.Aging cell · 2024Trial
- Fasting-mimicking diet causes hepatic and blood markers changes indicating reduced biological age and disease risk.Nature communications · 2024Trial
- Effect of long-term caloric restriction on DNA methylation measures of biological aging in healthy adults from the CALERIE trial.Nature aging · 2023Trial
- Employment trajectories and biological aging: Racial and ethnic disparities in work instability and epigenetic age acceleration.SSM - population health · 2026Article
- Physiological Age and Homeostatic Dysregulation Following Child Maltreatment in Youth.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- Impact of caloric restriction on biological aging: insights from a composite biomarker index in older adults.GeroScience · 2026Article
- Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Association Between Biological Aging Acceleration and the Risk of Osteoarthritis: A Cohort Study From UK Biobank.International journal of rheumatic diseases · 2026Article
- Prognostic Value of Different Biological Age Estimation Methods in Breast Cancer Patients: A Population-Based Cohort Study Using NHANES 1999-2020.Health science reports · 2026Article
- Integrating biological aging into clinical practice: a review and path forward for precision longevity medicine.GeroScience · 2026Review
- DXA-Measured Visceral Adipose Tissue and Accelerated Biological Aging in Middle-Aged Adults.Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.) · 2026Article
- Accelerated biological aging and the risk of incident liver cancer: a prospective cohort study of the UK biobank.BMC gastroenterology · 2026Article
- Associations Between Welding-Related Metals and Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease Risk in Male Welders: The Mediating Role of Accelerated Biological Aging.Cardiovascular toxicology · 2026Article
- Epigenetic Aging and Cognitive Performance in General and Psychiatric Populations: A Systematic Review and Narrative Synthesis.Biological psychiatry global open science · 2026Review
- Childhood socioeconomic status and changes in biological aging across mid-to-later life.Social science & medicine (1982) · 2026Article
- Functional, molecular, and digital measurements of biological age.The Journal of clinical investigation · 2026Review
- Joint association of the frailty index and phenotypic age with all-cause and cause-specific mortality: A prospective cohort study.Journal of translational internal medicine · 2026Article
- Association between essential trace elements, dietary patterns, and biological aging.European journal of nutrition · 2026Article
- Early-life determinants of cardiometabolic outcomes and accelerated biological ageing in Colombia.Aging · 2026Article
235 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors at 6 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
Abstract
The geroscience hypothesis posits that therapies to slow biological processes of aging can prevent disease and extend healthy years of life. To test such "geroprotective" therapies in humans, outcome measures are needed that can assess extension of disease-free life span. This need has spurred development of different methods to quantify biological aging. But different methods have not been systematically compared in the same humans. We implemented 7 methods to quantify biological aging using repeated-measures physiological and genomic data in 964 middle-aged humans in the Dunedin Study (New Zealand; persons born 1972-1973). We studied 11 measures in total: telomere-length and erosion, 3 epigenetic-clocks and their ticking rates, and 3 biomarker-composites. Contrary to expectation, we found low agreement between different measures of biological aging. We next compared associations between biological aging measures and outcomes that geroprotective therapies seek to modify: physical functioning, cognitive decline, and subjective signs of aging, including aged facial appearance. The 71-cytosine-phosphate-guanine epigenetic clock and biomarker composites were consistently related to these aging-related outcomes. However, effect sizes were modest. Results suggested that various proposed approaches to quantifying biological aging may not measure the same aspects of the aging process. Further systematic evaluation and refinement of measures of biological aging is needed to furnish outcomes for geroprotector trials.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.