Evidence map›Paper›PMID 35715888›Full record

ArticleThe journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences2022

DNA Methylation "GrimAge" Acceleration Mediates Sex/Gender Differences in Verbal Memory and Processing Speed: Findings From the Health and Retirement Study.

Deirdre M O'Shea, Taylor Maynard, Geoffrey Tremont

Open access · greenAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
17citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
9.9field-weighted citation impact, top 2% of its field
1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

17 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 25 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Development and validation of MethylCog, a blood DNA methylation proxy for cognition.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2026
    Article
  3. Article
  4. Article
  5. Article
  6. Article
  7. Review
  8. Review
  9. Article
  10. Article
  11. Article
  12. Epigenetic Age Acceleration and Chronological Age: Associations With Cognitive Performance in Daily Life.The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences · 2024
    Article
  13. Review
  14. Article
  15. Article
  16. Diet, pace of biological aging, and risk of dementia in the Framingham Heart Study.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2023
    Article
  17. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.

Deirdre M O'SheaDepartment of Psychiatry & Human Behavior, Warren Alpert Medical School, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island,USA.ORCID 0000-0003-3313-7655
Taylor MaynardRhode Island Hospital, Providence, Rhode Island, USA.
Geoffrey TremontDepartment of Psychiatry & Human Behavior, Warren Alpert Medical School, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island,USA.
Brown University · USRhode Island Hospital · US

Funding

HRS Yrs29-34: Y33 SSA CoFundingU01AG009740 · NIA · UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR · PI Jessica Faul, KENNETH M LANGA · 1990 to 2026
$555.8M
Health and Retirement Study: Harmonized Cognitive Assessment Protocol (HCAP)U01AG058499 · NIA · UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR · PI LANGA, KENNETH M · 2018 to 2023
$8.3M
NIA NIH HHS U01 AG009740NIA NIH HHS U01 AG058499
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Whether sex/gender differences in rates of biological aging mediate sex/gender differences in cognition in older adults has not been fully examined. The aim of the current study was to investigate this association. Data from up to 1 928 participants (mean age = 75, standard deviation = 7.04, female = 57%) who took part in the 2016 Harmonized Cognitive Assessment Protocol and Venous Blood Study; substudies of the Health and Retirement Study were included in the current study. The residuals from 4 age-adjusted epigenetic clocks (Horvath, Hannum, PhenoAge, and GrimAge) were used to measure biological age acceleration. Sex/gender differences in cognition were tested using a series of analyses of covariance. Mediation analyses tested whether the measures of age acceleration accounted for these sex/gender differences, controlling for age, education, smoking status, and white blood cell count. Women outperformed men on measures of verbal learning, verbal memory, visual scanning, and processing speed. No other significant sex/gender differences were identified. Results from mediation analyses revealed that women's slower rates of GrimAge fully accounted for their faster processing speeds and partially accounted for their better performances on verbal learning, verbal memory, and visual scanning measures. None of the other measures of age acceleration were significant mediators. Accounting for sex/gender differences in biological aging may differentiate between cognitive sex/gender differences that are driven by universal (ie, age-related) versus sex-specific mechanisms. More broadly, these findings support the growing evidence that the GrimAge clock outperforms other clocks in predicting cognitive outcomes.

Indexed as

DNA MethylationRetirementAgedAgingEpigenesis, GeneticFemaleHumansMaleProcessing SpeedSex FactorsBiological ageCognitionDNA methylationSex/gender differences

Identifiers

PMID35715888
PMCPMC9799212
OpenAlexW4283076251

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.