Background: Major depressive disorder affects mental well-being and accelerates DNA methylation age, a marker of biological aging. Subclinical depressive symptoms and DNA methylation aging have not been explored.
Objective: To assess the cross-sectional association between depressive symptoms and accelerated DNA methylation aging among United States adults over age 50.
Methods: We included 3,793 participants from the 2016 wave of the Health and Retirement Study. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale and operationalized as high versus low/no. Blood DNA methylation GrimAge was regressed on chronologic age to obtain acceleration. Multiple linear regression assessed the relationship between high depressive symptoms and GrimAge acceleration, controlling for demographic factors, health behaviors, and cell type proportions. We investigated sex and race/ethnicity stratified associations.
Results: Participants were 42% male, 14% had high depressive symptoms, 44% had accelerated GrimAge, and were mean age 70 years. In our fully adjusted model, those with high depressive symptoms had 0.40 (95%CI: 0.06, 0.73) years accelerated GrimAge, compared to those with low/no depressive symptoms. The association between depressive symptoms and GrimAge acceleration was larger in male participants ( P = 0.04).
Conclusion: Higher depressive symptoms were associated with accelerated DNA methylation age among older adults.