ArticleJournal of the American Geriatrics Society2024
Stressful life events, social support, and epigenetic aging in the Women's Health Initiative.
Article in Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Epigenetic Age Acceleration as a Modifiable Public Health Target: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Environmental, Behavioral, and Social Determinants with Development of the MEAB-Index.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Pooled it
- 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
- Neighborhood disadvantage and accelerated epigenetic aging in the early aftermath of trauma: The moderating role of individual psychological resources.Journal of psychiatric research · 2026Article
- Epigenetic entropy, socioeconomic differences, and health and lifespan in the Women's Health Initiative.Clinical epigenetics · 2026Article
- The role of health behaviors in links between stress and epigenetic aging.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2026Article
- Life-course Psychosocial Adversity and Biological Aging in the Hispanic Community Health Study / Study of Latinos: A Life-course Model Analysis.Research square · 2026Article
- Psychosocial stressors, accelerated biological aging, and multiple morbidities: Evidence from an age-diverse sample.PloS one · 2026Article
- Changes in DNA Methylation Associated With Psychobehavioral Interventions: A Scoping Literature Review.Biological research for nursing · 2025Article
- Associations between community social capital and posttraumatic growth among older survivors 11 years after a natural disaster.American journal of epidemiology · 2025Article
- Depressive symptoms partially mediate the relationship between psychosocial factors and epigenetic age acceleration in a multi-racial/ethnic sample of older adults.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2025Article
- Quantification of Epigenetic Aging in Public Health.Annual review of public health · 2025Review
- Lifetime chronic stress exposures, stress hormones, and biological aging: Results from the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) study.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2025Article
- Stressful life events across the lifespan and inflammation: An integrative data analysis.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 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
14 authors.
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Abstract
backgroundElevated psychosocial stress has been linked with accelerated biological aging, including composite DNA methylation (DNAm) markers that predict aging-related outcomes ("epigenetic age"). However, no study has examined whether stressful life events (SLEs) are associated with epigenetic age acceleration in postmenopausal women, an aging population characterized by increased stress burden and disease risk.
methodsWe leveraged the Women's Health Initiative, a large muti-ancestry cohort of postmenopausal women with available psychosocial stress measures over the past year and epigenomic data. SLEs and social support were ascertained via self-report questionnaires. Whole blood DNAm array (450 K) data were used to calculate five DNAm-based predictors of chronological age, health span and life span, and telomere length (HorvathAge, HannumAge, PhenoAge, GrimAge, DNAmTL).
resultsAfter controlling for potential confounders, higher SLE burden was significantly associated with accelerated epigenetic aging, as measured by GrimAge (β: 0.34, 95% CI: 0.08, 0.59) and DNAmTL (β: -0.016, 95% CI: -0.028, -0.004). Exploratory analyses showed that SLEs-GrimAge associations were stronger in Black women as compared to other races/ethnicities and in those with lower social support levels. In women with lower social support, SLEs-DNAmTL associations showed opposite association in Hispanic women as compared to other race/ethnicity groups.
conclusionsOur findings suggest that elevated stress burden is associated with accelerated epigenetic aging in postmenopausal women. Lower social support and/or self-reported race/ethnicity may modify the association of stress with epigenetic age acceleration. These findings advance understanding of how stress may contribute to aging-related outcomes and have important implications for disease prevention and treatment in aging women.
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