Is childhood maltreatment tied to epigenetic aging?

Court-documented maltreatment was associated with small differences in GrimAge and DunedinPACE in sixth decade of life, but neither difference was statistically significant.

By
Andrea Surnit
August 13, 2026
3 min

MDSpire News

Objective:

To investigate the association between childhood maltreatment and biological aging in adults.

Approach:

Study Design: A prospective longitudinal cohort study involving 276 adult participants, including 164 with court-documented childhood maltreatment and 112 matched controls.
Data Collection: Saliva samples were collected during follow-up in 2022 to 2023 to assess biological aging using two DNA methylation-based epigenetic clocks: GrimAge and DunedinPACE.
Statistical Analysis: Primary models adjusted for age, sex, and self-reported race and ethnicity, with additional adjustments for smoking and body mass index (BMI).

Key Findings:

Participants with childhood maltreatment had older GrimAge and faster DunedinPACE measurements compared to controls, but the differences were not statistically significant.
Adjustment for smoking and BMI attenuated effect sizes, suggesting behavioral pathways may influence long-term aging differences.

Interpretation:

The findings indicate modest associations between childhood maltreatment and biological aging, but the small effect sizes suggest limited clinical applicability.

Limitations:

The small number of participants with biomarker data limited subgroup analyses.
GrimAge and DunedinPACE are imperfect measures of biological aging, developed for blood analysis but applied to saliva in this study.