{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,22]],"date-time":"2026-09-22T18:09:41Z","timestamp":1790100581221,"version":"4.0.1"},"reference-count":37,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"17","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2019,8,31]],"date-time":"2019-08-31T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1567209600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100000056","name":"National Institute of Nursing Research","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["NR013520"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["NR013520"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100000056","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["IJMS"],"abstract":"<jats:p>African American women are affected by earlier onset of age-associated health deteriorations and obesity disproportionally, but little is known about the mechanism linking body mass index (BMI) and biological aging among this population. DNA methylation age acceleration (DNAm AA), measuring the difference between DNA methylation age and chronological age, is a novel biomarker of the biological aging process, and predicts aging-related disease outcomes. The present study estimated cross-tissue DNA methylation age acceleration using saliva samples from 232 African American mothers. Cross-sectional regression analyses were performed to assess the association of BMI with DNAm AA. The average chronological age and DNA methylation age were 31.67 years, and 28.79 years, respectively. After adjusting for smoking, hypertension diagnosis history, and socioeconomic factors (education, marital status, household income), a 1 kg\/m2 increase in BMI is associated with 0.14 years increment of DNAm AA (95% CI: (0.08, 0.21)). The conclusion: in African American women, high BMI is independently associated with saliva-based DNA methylation age acceleration, after adjusting for smoking, hypertension, and socioeconomic status. This finding supports that high BMI accelerates biological aging, and plays a key role in age-related disease outcomes among African American women.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ijms20174273","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2019,9,2]],"date-time":"2019-09-02T03:16:12Z","timestamp":1567394172000},"page":"4273","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":35,"title":["Association of Obesity with DNA Methylation Age Acceleration in African American Mothers from the InterGEN Study"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"20","author":[{"given":"Chengchen","family":"Li","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Epidemiology, Emory University Rollins School of Public Health, 1518 Clifton Road NE, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Zeyuan","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Epidemiology, Emory University Rollins School of Public Health, 1518 Clifton Road NE, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Theresa","family":"Hardy","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"New York University Rory Meyers College of Nursing, 433 First Avenue, New York, NY 10010, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yunfeng","family":"Huang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Epidemiology, Emory University Rollins School of Public Health, 1518 Clifton Road NE, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Qin","family":"Hui","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Epidemiology, Emory University Rollins School of Public Health, 1518 Clifton Road NE, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Cindy A.","family":"Crusto","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, 300 George Street, New Haven, CT 06511, USA"},{"name":"Department of Psychology, University of Pretoria, cnr Lynnwood Road and Roper Street, Hatfield, Pretoria 0002, South Africa"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Michelle L.","family":"Wright","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Nursing, University of Texas at Austin, 1710 Red River Street, Austin, TX 78712, USA"},{"name":"Department of Women\u2019s Health, Dell Medical School, University of Texas at Austin, 1701 Trinity Street, Austin, TX 78705, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jacquelyn Y.","family":"Taylor","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"New York University Rory Meyers College of Nursing, 433 First Avenue, New York, NY 10010, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2838-1824","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Yan V.","family":"Sun","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Epidemiology, Emory University Rollins School of Public Health, 1518 Clifton Road NE, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA"},{"name":"Atlanta VA Healthcare System, 1670 Clairmont Road, Decatur, GA 30033, USA"},{"name":"Department of Biomedical Informatics, Emory University School of Medicine, 1648 Pierce Dr. NE, Atlanta, GA 30307, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2019,8,31]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","first-page":"1","article-title":"Prevalence of Obesity Among Adults and Youth: United States, 2015\u20132016","volume":"288","author":"Hales","year":"2017","journal-title":"NCHS Data Brief"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1197","DOI":"10.1016\/S0140-6736(05)67483-1","article-title":"Obesity","volume":"366","author":"Haslam","year":"2005","journal-title":"Lancet"},{"key":"ref_3","first-page":"1","article-title":"United States Life Tables, 2015","volume":"67","author":"Arias","year":"2018","journal-title":"Natl. 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