TY - JOUR T1 - Life course socioeconomic position and DNA methylation age acceleration in mid-life JF - Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health JO - J Epidemiol Community Health SP - 1084 LP - 1090 DO - 10.1136/jech-2020-215608 VL - 75 IS - 11 AU - Anitha George AU - Rebecca Hardy AU - Juan Castillo Fernandez AU - Yvonne Kelly AU - Jane Maddock Y1 - 2021/11/01 UR - http://jech.bmj.com/content/75/11/1084.abstract N2 - Background Ageing biomarkers can help us better understand how well-established socioeconomic position (SEP) disparities in ageing occur. A promising new set of DNAm methylation (DNAm)-based ageing biomarkers indicate through their age acceleration (AA) measures if biological ageing is slower or faster than chronological ageing. Few studies have investigated the association between SEP and DNAm AA.Methods We used linear regression to examine the sex-adjusted relationships between childhood social class, adult social class, intergenerational social class change, education and adult household earnings with first (Horvath AA and Hannum AA) and second generation (PhenoAge AA and GrimAge AA) DNAm AA markers using data from the MRC National Survey of Health and Development.Results In the first-generation biomarkers, there was little evidence of any associations with Horvath AA but associations of childhood social class and income with Hannum AA were observed. Strong associations were seen between greater disadvantage in childhood and adult SEP and greater AA in the second generation biomarkers. For example, those with fathers in an unskilled occupational social class in childhood had 3.6 years greater PhenoAge AA (95% CI 1.8 to 5.4) than those with fathers from a professional social class. Individuals without qualifications had higher AA compared with those with higher education (4.1 years greater GrimAge AA (95% CI 3.1 to 5.0)).Conclusion Our findings highlight the importance of exposure to social disadvantage in childhood to the biological ageing process. The second generation clocks appear to be more sensitive to the accumulation of social disadvantage across the life course.Data may be obtained from a third party and are not publicly available. Data used in this publication are available to bona fide researchers upon request to the NSHD Data Sharing Committee via a standard application procedure. Further details can be found at http://www.nshd.mrc.ac.uk/data doi: 10.5522/NSHD/S201. ER -