biostudies-literatureZhang XNIA NIH HHS1959https://www.ebi.ac.uk/biostudies/studies/S-EPMC9689874biostudies-literatureUnknown13(11)The epigenome likely interacts with traditional and genetic risk factors to influence blood pressure. We evaluated whether 13 previously reported DNA methylation sites (CpGs) are associated with systolic (SBP) or diastolic (DBP) blood pressure, both individually and aggregated into methylation risk scores (MRS), in 3070 participants (including 437 African ancestry (AA) and 2021 European ancestry (EA), mean age = 70.5 years) from the Health and Retirement Study. Nine CpGs were at least nominally associated with SBP and/or DBP after adjusting for traditional hypertension risk factors (<i>p</i> < 0.05). MRS_SBP was positively associated with SBP in the full sample (β = 1.7 mmHg per 1 standard deviation in MRS_SBP; <i>p</i> = 2.7 × 10^-5) and in EA (β = 1.6; <i>p<GenesThe Interplay of Epigenetic, Genetic, and Traditional Risk Factors on Blood Pressure: Findings from the Health and Retirement Study.PMC9689874R01AG055406R01AG067592U01AG009740Kardia SLRAmmous FFaul JDZhang XZhao WWare EBSmith JALin LRatliff SMfalseThe Interplay of Epigenetic, Genetic, and Traditional Risk Factors on Blood Pressure: Findings from the Health and Retirement Study.The epigenome likely interacts with traditional and genetic risk factors to influence blood pressure. We evaluated whether 13 previously reported DNA methylation sites (CpGs) are associated with systolic (SBP) or diastolic (DBP) blood pressure, both individually and aggregated into methylation risk scores (MRS), in 3070 participants (including 437 African ancestry (AA) and 2021 European ancestry (EA), mean age = 70.5 years) from the Health and Retirement Study. Nine CpGs were at least nominally associated with SBP and/or DBP after adjusting for traditional hypertension risk factors (<i>p</i> < 0.05). MRS_SBP was positively associated with SBP in the full sample (β = 1.7 mmHg per 1 standard deviation in MRS_SBP; <i>p</i> = 2.7 × 10^-5) and in EA (β = 1.6; <i>p<2022-01-01T00:00:00Z2022 Oct2025-06-01T02:49:14.146Z2025-06-01T02:49:14.146ZS-EPMC96898743636019610.3390/genes13111959