Analysis of socioeconomic disadvantage and pace of aging measured in saliva DNA methylation of children and adolescents

摘要: Abstract Children who grow up in socioeconomically disadvantaged families face increased burden of disease and disability as they mature into adulthood. One hypothesized mechanism for this is that early-life disadvantage its associated psychological stress accelerate biological processes aging, increasing vulnerability to subsequent disease. In order evaluate hypothesis the potential impact preventive interventions, measures quantify early acceleration aging childhood are needed. Here, we evaluated a novel DNA-methylation measure pace DunedinPoAm, compared DunedinPoAm results with several published epigenetic clocks. Data on saliva socioeconomic circumstances were collected from N = 600 children adolescents aged 8- 18-years-old (48% female) participating Texas Twin Project. Participants living more neighborhoods exhibited faster (r 0.18, p 0.001 both). Latinx-identifying both White- Latinx-White-identifying children, consistent higher levels group. advanced pubertal development those had body-mass index also but these covariates did not account observed gradient methylation aging. contrast findings detect associations five Findings suggest pace-of-aging may prove sensitive health damaging effects adversity, particularly when measurements taken life course, before substantial has occurred.