Aging
Navigate
Submit an Article
Research Paper|Volume 11, Issue 14|pp 4970—4989

Optimism is not associated with two indicators of DNA methylation aging

Eric S. Kim1,2,3, Kelvin Fong4, Lewina Lee5,6, Avron Spiro7,8, Joel Schwartz9,10, Eric Whitsel11,12, Steve Horvath13,14, Cuicui Wang9, Lifang Hou15, Andrea A. Baccarelli16, Yun Li17,18,19, James Stewart20, JoAnn E. Manson10,21, Francine Grodstein10,22, Dawn L. DeMeo21,22, Laura D. Kubzansky1,2
  • 1Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA
  • 2Lee Kum Sheung Center for Health and Happiness, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA
  • 3Program on Integrative Knowledge and Human Flourishing, Institute for Quantitative Social Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
  • 4School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511, USA
  • 5VA Boston Healthcare System, Boston, MA 02130, USA
  • 6Department Psychiatry, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02118, USA
  • 7Massachusetts Veterans Epidemiology Research and Information Center (MAVERIC), VA Boston Healthcare System, Boston, MA 02130, USA
  • 8Department of Epidemiology, Boston University Schools of Public Health and Medicine, Boston, MA 02118, USA
  • 9Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA
  • 10Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA
  • 11Department of Epidemiology, Gillings School of Global Public Health, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
  • 12Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
  • 13Department of Human Genetics, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
  • 14Department of Biostatistics, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
  • 15Department of Preventive Medicine, Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL 60611, USA
  • 16Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Columbia Mailman School of Public Health, New York, NY 10032, USA
  • 17Department of Genetics, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
  • 18Department of Biostatistics, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
  • 19Department of Computer Science University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
  • 20Cardiovascular Program, Department of Epidemiology, University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
  • 21Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA
  • 22Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA 02115, USA
* Co-senior authors
Received: April 30, 2019Accepted: July 4, 2019Published: July 18, 2019
https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.102090

Copyright © 2019 Kim et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 3.0 License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

Evidence indicates associations between higher optimism and reduced risk of age-related conditions and premature mortality. This suggests optimism is a positive health asset, but research identifying potential biological mechanisms underlying these associations remains limited. One potential pathway is slower cellular aging, which may delay age-related deterioration in health. Data were from the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) (N=3,298) and the Veterans Affairs Normative Aging Study (NAS) (N=514), and included dispositional and explanatory style optimism measures. We evaluated whether higher optimism was associated with metrics suggestive of less cellular aging, as indicated by two DNA methylation algorithms, intrinsic (IEAA) and extrinsic epigenetic age acceleration (EEAA); these algorithms represent accelerated biologic aging that exceeds chronological age. We used linear regression models to test our hypothesis while considering several covariates (sociodemographics, depressive symptoms, health behaviors). In both cohorts, we found consistently null associations of all measures of optimism with both measures of DNA methylation aging, regardless of covariates considered. For example, in fully-adjusted models, dispositional optimism was not associated with either IEAA (WHI:β=0.02; 95% Confidence Interval [CI]:-0.15-0.20; NAS:β=-0.06; 95% CI:-0.56-0.44) or EEAA (WHI:β=-0.04; 95% CI: -0.26-0.17; NAS:β=-0.17; 95% CI: -0.80-0.46). Higher optimism was not associated with reduced cellular aging as measured in this study.