Sex differences in accelerated epigenetic age and cognitive decline: possible role of biological, social, and lifestyle factors

Growing older has been associated with a decline in cognition and identifying cellular predictors of decline is important for the development of effective treatments. Epigenetic age, a metric that quantifies whether a person is biologically aging faster than their chronological age, is one such possible predictor. Men show faster epigenetic aging and women show faster cognitive decline with aging. This project aims to determine whether the association between epigenetic age and cognitive decline differs in men and women, and to identify biological, social, and lifestyle factors that may help explain this difference.