ArticleThe journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences2023
Associations Between Longitudinal Loneliness, DNA Methylation Age Acceleration, and Cognitive Functioning.
Article in The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 14 citations in OpenAlex.
- Social Connection and Epigenetic Aging: Insights from DNA Methylation Clocks.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2026Article
- Psychological adversities and epigenetic ageing in midlife and older age: A systematic review and meta-analysis.The journal of prevention of Alzheimer's disease · 2026Review
- Epigenetic Aging and Cognitive Performance in General and Psychiatric Populations: A Systematic Review and Narrative Synthesis.Biological psychiatry global open science · 2026Review
- 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
- Investigating the trivariate reciprocal longitudinal relationships between purpose, loneliness, and cognitive function.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2025Article
- Associations of subjective age trajectories with loneliness and stress across adulthood.PloS one · 2025Article
- Editorial: International perspectives on older adult social isolation and loneliness.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Biological Mechanisms Linking Social Adversity and Cognition.Public health reviews · 2025Review
- Epigenome-wide association study of loneliness in a sample of U.S. middle-aged twins.Epigenetics · 2024Article
- Associations Between Loneliness, Epigenetic Aging, and Multimorbidity Through Older Adulthood.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2024Article
- Loneliness, epigenetic age acceleration, and chronic health conditions.Psychology and aging · 2024Article
- Generations of epigenetic clocks and their links to socioeconomic status in the Health and Retirement Study.Epigenomics · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
objectivesLoneliness may influence aging biomarkers related to cognitive functioning, for example, through accelerated DNA methylation (DNAm) aging.
methodsIn the present study, we tested whether six common DNAm age acceleration measures mediated the effects of baseline loneliness and five different longitudinal loneliness trajectories on general cognitive ability, immediate memory recall, delayed memory recall, and processing speed in 1,814 older adults in the Health and Retirement Study.
resultsWe found that baseline loneliness and individuals who belong to the highest loneliness trajectories had poorer general cognitive ability and memory scores. Only DNAm age acceleration measures that index physiological comorbidities, unhealthy lifestyle factors (e.g., smoking), and mortality risk-mediated effects of baseline loneliness on general cognitive ability and memory functioning but not processing speed. These same DNAm measures mediated effects of the moderate-but-declining loneliness trajectory on cognitive functioning. Additionally, immediate and delayed memory scores were mediated by GrimAge Accel in the lowest and two highest loneliness trajectory groups. Total and mediated effects of loneliness on cognitive functioning outcomes were mainly accounted for by demographic, social, psychological, and physiological covariates, most notably self-rated health, depressive symptomatology, objective social isolation, and body mass index. DISCUSSION: Current findings suggest that DNAm biomarkers of aging, particularly GrimAge Accel, have promise for explaining the prospective association between loneliness and cognitive functioning outcomes.
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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.