Abstract

Aim: Investigate if childhood measures of sleep health are associated with epigenetic age acceleration in late adolescence. Methods: Parent-reported sleep trajectories from age 5 to 17, self-reported sleep problems at age 17, and six measures of epigenetic age acceleration at age 17 were studied in 1192 young Australians from the Raine Study Gen2. Results: There was no evidence for a relationship between the parent-reported sleep trajectories and epigenetic age acceleration (p ≥ 0.17). There was a positive cross-sectional relationship between self-reported sleep problem score and intrinsic epigenetic age acceleration at age 17 (b = 0.14, p = 0.04), which was attenuated after controlling for depressive symptom score at the same age (b = 0.08, p = 0.34). Follow-up analyses suggested this finding may represent greater overtiredness and intrinsic epigenetic age acceleration in adolescents with higher depressive symptoms. Conclusion: There was no evidence for a relationship between self- or parent-reported sleep health and epigenetic age acceleration in late adolescence after adjusting for depressive symptoms. Mental health should be considered as a potential confounding variable in future research on sleep and epigenetic age acceleration, particularly if subjective measures of sleep are used.

Keywords

biological age, childhood, DNA methylation, methylation age, the Raine Study

Document Type

Journal Article

Date of Publication

5-1-2023

Volume

112

Issue

5

PubMed ID

36808764

Publication Title

Acta Paediatrica, International Journal of Paediatrics

Publisher

Wiley

School

Nutrition and Health Innovation Research Institute

RAS ID

56597

Funders

Flinders University. Grant Number: Research Co-investment Strategy / National Health and Medical Research Council / Raine Medical Research Foundation

Grant Number

NHMRC Numbers : 003209, 1059711, 211912, 353514, 403981

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Comments

Balfour, D., Melton, P. E., McVeigh, J. A., Huang, R. C., Eastwood, P. R., Wanstall, S., ... & Cohen‐Woods, S. (2023). Childhood sleep health and epigenetic age acceleration in late adolescence: Cross‐sectional and longitudinal analyses. Acta Paediatrica, 112(5), 1001-1010. https://doi.org/10.1111/apa.16719

First Page

1001

Last Page

1010

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Link to publisher version (DOI)

10.1111/apa.16719