An unbiased comparison of 14 epigenetic clocks in relation to 10-year onset of 174 disease outcomes in 18,859 individuals.

ABSTRACT: Epigenetic Clocks have been trained to predict chronological age, healthspan and lifespan. Such clocks are often analysed in relation to disease outcomes - typically using small datasets and a limited number of clocks. Here, we present the first large-scale (n=18,849), unbiased comparison of 14 widely used clocks as predictors of 174 incident disease outcomes and all-cause mortality. Second-generation clocks significantly outperformed first-generation clocks, which have limited applications in disease settings. Of the 176 Bonferroni significant (P<0.05/174) associations, there were 27 diseases (including primary lung cancer and diabetes) where the hazard ratio for the clock exceeded the clock's association with all-cause mortality. Furthermore, there were 35 instances where adding a clock

SUBMITTER: Mavrommatis C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12338881 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature