Alcohol Consumption and Methylation-Based Measures of Biological Age

Epigenetic age acceleration is considered a measure of biological aging based on genome-wide patterns of DNA methylation. Although age acceleration has been associated with the incidence of diseases and death, less is known about how it is related to lifestyle behaviors. Among 2316 women, we evaluate associations between self-reported alcohol consumption and various metrics of epigenetic age acceleration. Recent average alcohol consumption was defined as the mean number of drinks consumed per week within the past year; lifetime average consumption was estimated as the mean number of drinks per year drinking. Whole-blood genome-wide DNA methylation was measured with HumanMethylation450 BeadChips and used to assess 4 epigenetic clocks (Hannum, Horvath, PhenoAge, and GrimAge) and their corresponding metrics of epigenetic age acceleration (Hannum AgeAccel, Horvath AgeAccel, PhenoAgeAccel, and GrimAgeAccel). Although alcohol consumption showed little association with most age acceleration metrics, both lifetime and recent average consumption measures were positively associated with GrimAgeAccel (lifetime, per additional 135 drinks/year: beta = 0.30 years, 95% confidence interval (CI]: 0.11, 0.48, p = .002; recent, per additional 5 drinks/week: beta = 0.19 years, 95% CI: 0.01, 0.37, p = .04). In a mutually adjusted model, only average lifetime alcohol consumption remained associated with GrimAgeAccel (lifetime, per additional 135 drinks/year: beta = 0.27 years, 95% CI: 0.04, 0.50, p = .02; recent, per 5 additional drinks/week: beta = 0.05 years, 95% CI: -0.16, 0.26, p = .64). Although alcohol use does not appear to be strongly associated with biological age measured by most epigenetic clocks, lifetime average consumption is associated with higher biological age assessed by the GrimAge epigenetic clock.

Automated summary

While alcohol consumption is not strongly associated with most epigenetic clocks in measuring biological age, lifetime average consumption is linked to higher biological age as assessed by the GrimAge epigenetic clock.