Racial and ethnic differences in epigenetic aging: The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 1999–2002

作者：Belinda L. Needham, Nicole Gladish, Hanyang Shen, Ching‐Ti Liu, Jennifer A. Smith, Bhramar Mukherjee, Xiang Zhou, David H. Rehkopf · 发表于：PLoS ONE · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1371/journal.pone.0327010 · 被引用次数：7 · 研究领域：Epigenetics and DNA Methylation、Race, Genetics, and Society、Birth, Development, and Health

BACKGROUND: Accelerated biological aging due to differences in socially patterned exposures has been proposed as a mechanism underlying racial and ethnic disparities in morbidity and mortality. Research exploring this hypothesis has been limited by a lack of consensus regarding the measurement of biological aging. OBJECTIVE: The goal of this study is to examine self-reported race and ethnicity as a predictor of 13 measures of epigenetic aging. METHODS: Data are from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (1999-2002), a nationally representative study of US residents aged two months and older. The analytic sample includes 2,402 adults aged 50-84 with epigenetic data. The exposure is self-reported race and ethnicity, and the outcomes are 13 measures of epigenetic aging trained on different aging phenotypes. RESULTS: In linear regression models controlling for age, age-squared, gender, and nativity, White respondents had higher epigenetic aging than Black respondents (the reference group) for six out of seven measures trained on chronological age (Hannum: b = 1.98, 95% CI = 1.43, 2.54; Horvath: b = 0.75, 95% CI = 0.09, 1.40; Weidner: b = 1.15, 95% CI = 0.30, 2.01; Vidal-Bralo: b = 2.30, 95% CI = 1.76, 2.84; SkinBlood: b = 0.85, 95% CI = 0.28, 1.43; Zhang: b = 0.58, 95% CI = 0.40, 0.76) and for one measure trained on telomere length (b = -0.17, 95% CI = -0.20, -0.14). In contrast, White respondents had lower epigenetic aging than Black respondents for three out of f...