Associations Between Longitudinal Loneliness, DNA Methylation Age Acceleration, and Cognitive Functioning

Morgan Lynch, Thalida Em Arpawong, Christopher R Beam and Alyssa Gamaldo

The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, 2023, vol. 78, issue 12, 2045-2059

Abstract: ObjectivesLoneliness may influence aging biomarkers related to cognitive functioning, for example, through accelerated DNA methylation (DNAm) aging.MethodsIn the present study, we tested whether six common DNAm age acceleration measures mediated the effects of baseline loneliness and five different longitudinal loneliness trajectories on general cognitive ability, immediate memory recall, delayed memory recall, and processing speed in 1,814 older adults in the Health and Retirement Study.ResultsWe found that baseline loneliness and individuals who belong to the highest loneliness trajectories had poorer general cognitive ability and memory scores. Only DNAm age acceleration measures that index physiological comorbidities, unhealthy lifestyle factors (e.g., smoking), and mortality risk-mediated effects of baseline loneliness on general cognitive ability and memory functioning but not processing speed. These same DNAm measures mediated effects of the moderate-but-declining loneliness trajectory on cognitive functioning. Additionally, immediate and delayed memory scores were mediated by GrimAge Accel in the lowest and two highest loneliness trajectory groups. Total and mediated effects of loneliness on cognitive functioning outcomes were mainly accounted for by demographic, social, psychological, and physiological covariates, most notably self-rated health, depressive symptomatology, objective social isolation, and body mass index.DiscussionCurrent findings suggest that DNAm biomarkers of aging, particularly GrimAge Accel, have promise for explaining the prospective association between loneliness and cognitive functioning outcomes.

Keywords: Epigenetic age; Cognition; DNA methylation; Loneliness; Longitudinal (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/geronb/gbad128 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:geronb:v:78:y:2023:i:12:p:2045-2059.

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://academic.oup.com/journals

Access Statistics for this article

The Journals of Gerontology: Series B is currently edited by Psychological Sciences - S. Duke Han, PhD and Social Sciences - Jessica A Kelley, PhD, FGSA

More articles in The Journals of Gerontology: Series B from The Gerontological Society of America Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().