{"doi":"10.1007/s11357-025-01706-6","title":"Sensory impairments and epigenetic aging: insights from self-rated hearing and vision in United States adults","abstract":"Sensory impairments are common with aging, but studies examining the relationships of these impairments with DNA methylation-based biomarkers of aging, strong predictors of morbidity and mortality, remain sparse. We investigated whether subjective measures of sensory impairment are associated with epigenetic age biomarkers. We conducted a cross-sectional analysis in a representative sample of 2344 U.S. adults from the 1999-2000 and 2001-2002 cycles of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). We examined the relationships of self-rated auditory and vision function with seven epigenetic aging biomarkers: HannumAge, HorvathAge, SkinBloodAge, PhenoAge, GrimAge2, DNA methylation telomere length, and DunedinPoAm. We adjusted for potential confounders including chronological age, other demographics, lifestyle factors, and general health. In adjusted survey-weighted models, self-reported deafness was associated with a significantly higher GrimAge2 (β = 4.19-years, 95% CI 2.29, 6.09, P = 0.004) and DunedinPoAm (β = 0.07, 95% CI 0.04, 0.09, P = 0.002) compared to good hearing. Deafness was also associated with significantly higher GrimAge2 estimates of TIMP1 (β = 459.51, 95% CI 287.00, 632.03 P = 0.002) and marginally higher estimated levels of ADM (β = 10.06, 95% CI 1.76, 18.36, P = 0.03), CRP (β = 0.34, 95% CI 0.11, 0.56, P = 0.01), and cigarette pack-years (β = 6.55, 95% CI 2.62, 10.47, P = 0.01). No associations were observed with self-rated vision. We describe associations of self-rated deafness with accelerated epigenetic aging, as measured by GrimAge2 and DunedinPoAm. These results provide a foundation for future research exploring epigenetic biomarkers as tools for predicting and understanding the biological processes underlying sensory impairments like deafness.","journal":"GeroScience","year":2025,"id":525819,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":3,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9122,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2025-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":753734,"name":"Dennis Khodasevich","orcid":"0000-0003-1412-8251","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":562239,"name":"Nicole Gladish","orcid":"0000-0001-6039-7001","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":353570,"name":"Hanyang Shen","orcid":"0000-0003-3273-9777","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":338908,"name":"Anne K. Bozack","orcid":"0000-0003-0046-5767","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":895916,"name":"Saher Daredia","orcid":"0000-0002-7906-4087","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":430018,"name":"Belinda L. Needham","orcid":"0000-0001-5939-2027","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":11021,"name":"David H. Rehkopf","orcid":"0000-0002-7597-6513","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":274134,"name":"Andrés Cárdenas","orcid":"0000-0003-2284-3298","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":352866,"name":"Jamaji C. Nwanaji‐Enwerem","orcid":"0000-0003-0356-4867","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":43,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:50:25.860105Z","pmid":"40410645","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}