Stressful life events, social support, and epigenetic aging in the Women's Health Initiative.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Elevated 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.

Methods

We 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 ag

SUBMITTER: Skinner HG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10922473 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature