The study titled ‘Substance use and epigenetic age acceleration: Associations with alcohol, tobacco, illicit drugs, and SUD severity’ explores the connections between various forms of substance use and biological aging. Conducted by researchers from the Irsay Institute for Sociomedical Sciences Research and the University of Michigan, the research analyzes data from 2,276 adults participating in the Person-to-Person Health Interview Study in Indiana.
Prior research had not adequately examined whether clinically significant measures of substance use disorders (SUD), including alcohol and opioid use, correlate with accelerated biological aging. This study aims to fill that gap by assessing the relationship between substance use and biological aging using DNA methylation profiling.
Methods
Participants completed validated assessments regarding their substance use, including SUD severity, clinically significant alcohol use, non-prescription and illicit opioid use, and nicotine consumption. Additionally, saliva samples were collected for DNA methylation analysis, which is used to estimate biological age through metrics such as AgeAccelGrim2 and DunedinPACE.
Results
The findings indicate that binary measures of illicit opioid use and non-prescription opioid use were positively associated with both AgeAccelGrim2 and DunedinPACE. Specifically, illicit opioid use showed a strong association with β=0.417 (p=5.913e-11) for AgeAccelGrim2 and β=0.180 (p=0.010) for DunedinPACE. Non-prescription opioid use also demonstrated significant associations, with β=0.264 (p=1.744e-09) for AgeAccelGrim2 and β=0.127 (p=0.008) for DunedinPACE.
Furthermore, clinically significant alcohol use was positively associated with AgeAccelGrim2 (β=0.177, p=2.111e-08) but did not show a significant relationship with DunedinPACE. Cigarette smoking was found to be positively associated with both biological aging metrics at all levels of smoking, while hookah use was negatively associated with AgeAccelGrim2 but not with DunedinPACE. Interestingly, vaping did not show any association with accelerated biological aging when analyzed alongside cigarette smoking.
Conclusions
The study concludes that substance use, particularly cigarette smoking and opioid use, is strongly linked to accelerated biological aging. These findings highlight the importance of further research to understand the mechanisms by which opioid use and vaping may contribute to biological aging.
What this study does not show
This study does not establish causation between substance use and epigenetic age acceleration, nor does it explore the underlying biological mechanisms involved.
Evidence scorecard
- Analytic validity: established
- Clinical validity: partial
- Clinical utility: not established
The evidence is based on primary research involving human participants.