ArticlePsychoneuroendocrinology2023
Positive social factors prospectively predict younger epigenetic age: Findings from the Health and Retirement Study.
Article in Psychoneuroendocrinology, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers.
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Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed, 24 citations in OpenAlex.
- Social Connection and Epigenetic Aging: Insights from DNA Methylation Clocks.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2026Article
- Neighborhood disadvantage and accelerated epigenetic aging in the early aftermath of trauma: The moderating role of individual psychological resources.Journal of psychiatric research · 2026Article
- The contribution of social and economic factors to accelerated biological aging differences between non-Hispanic Black and White adults in the Health and Retirement Study.The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences · 2026Article
- Negative social ties as emerging risk factors for accelerated aging, inflammation, and multimorbidity.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Longevity, Centenarians, and Lifestyle: Any ''Tips'' to Live Longer?Current nutrition reports · 2026Review
- Tobacco, biological aging and epigenetic resilience: the Andorran paradox.Frontiers in aging · 2026Article
- Urban-rural disparities in living arrangement and older adults care service supply in China: a cross-sectional study.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Social bonds decrease epigenetic age in male bottlenose dolphins.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Article
- Social relationships and epigenetic markers of aging in middle-aged and older adults: cross-sectional and prospective analyses.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2025Article
- Social relationships and immune aging in early midlife: Evidence from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2025Article
- Stay social, stay young: a bioanthropological outlook on the processes linking sociality and ageing.GeroScience · 2025Review
- Early resilience and epigenetic ageing: Results from the prospective Young Finns Study with a 31-year follow-up.Aging cell · 2025Article
- Methylation and algorithms in biological aging: a scoping review.Frontiers in aging · 2025Review
- Associations Between Loneliness, Epigenetic Aging, and Multimorbidity Through Older Adulthood.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2024Article
- Trauma, adversity, and biological aging: behavioral mechanisms relevant to treatment and theory.Translational psychiatry · 2024Review
- Loneliness, epigenetic age acceleration, and chronic health conditions.Psychology and aging · 2024Article
- Social relationships and epigenetic aging in older adulthood: Results from the Health and Retirement Study.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2023Article
- Biomarkers of aging through the life course: A Recent Literature Update.Current opinion in epidemiology and public health · 2023Article
- How does loneliness "get under the skin" to become biologically embedded?Biodemography and social biologyReview
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
objectivesPositive social factors may slow biological aging, but this has yet to be rigorously tested. This study investigated whether baseline levels or changes over time in social support and contact frequency prospectively predicted epigenetic age.
methodHealth and Retirement Study participants (N = 1912, 46.3 % male, aged 42-87 at baseline) reported longitudinal social support and contact frequency data up to 3 times between 2006 and 2016 and provided blood in 2016. Baseline levels (intercepts) and changes over time (slopes) in social support from and contact frequency with spouses, children, friends, and other family were outputted from multilevel models and used to predict epigenetic age, estimated from Horvath, Hannum, GrimAge, PhenoAge, and Dunedin Pace of Aging.
resultsIn models adjusted for demographic and health characteristics, higher baseline levels of support from and contact frequency with friends were prospectively associated with a slower Pace of Aging (support: p = .002; contact: p = 0.009) and a lower GrimAge (contact: p = .001). In addition, higher contact frequency with children at baseline was prospectively associated with a lower GrimAge (p < .001), and higher contact frequency with family at baseline and an increase in family contact over time was associated with a lower Hannum age (baseline: p = .005; slope: p = .015).
conclusionsPerceived support from and contact with close others, particularly friends, may have implications for healthy biological aging. Notably, the effect sizes for friends were comparable to the effect of body mass index on epigenetic age. Positive social factors were generally associated with second- and third-generation clocks, which may be more sensitive to psychosocial factors than first-generation clocks.
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