Associations between indicators of socioeconomic position and DNA methylation: a scoping review

Cerutti, Janine; Lussier, Alexandre A.; Zhu, Yiwen; Liu, Jiaxuan; Dunn, Erin C.

doi:10.1186/s13148-021-01189-0

Clinical Epigenetics

Table 2 Associations between socioeconomic position and DNA methylation from candidate gene studies (n = 18)

From: Associations between indicators of socioeconomic position and DNA methylation: a scoping review

References	N	SEP indicator		DNAm		Effect^a
References	N	Exposure age(s)^b	SEP domain(s)^c	Assessment age(s)^b	Targeted gene(s)	↑↓	Associated gene	Associated SEP domain	Significance threshold
King et al. [49]	489	Prenatal	Ed., In	Birth	9 genes	↓	IGF2	Ed./In	p < 0.05
						↓	H19	Ed	p < 0.05
						↓	MEG3	Ed./In	p < 0.05
King et al. [50]	489	Prenatal	Neigh	Birth	MEG3	↑	MEG3	Neigh	p = 0.002
Appleton et al. [51]	444	Prenatal, Birth	Comp., Ed., Misc	Birth	HSD11B2	↓	HSD11B2	Comp	p < 0.05
						↓	HSD11B2	Ed	p < 0.05
						↓	HSD11B2	Misc	p < 0.05
Piyasena et al. [52]	50	Birth	Neigh	Birth, Child 2×	IGF2; H19; FKBP5	↓	IGF2	Comp	p < 0.05
Piyasena et al. [52]	50	Birth	Neigh	Birth, Child 2×	IGF2; H19; FKBP5	↓	FKBP5	Comp	p < 0.05
Obermann-Borst et al. [53]	120	Child	Ed	Child	IGF2; IGF2R; INSIGF	↑	INSIGF	Ed	p = 0.021
Obermann-Borst et al. [54]	120	Child	Ed	Child	LEP	↑	LEP	Ed	p = 0.008
Wrigglesworth et al. [55]	33	Child	Neigh	Child	BDNF IV	↑	BDNF IV	Neigh	p = 0.0001
Huang et al. [56]	613	Birth	Ed., Occ	Adult	5 genes	↓	ABCA1	Occ	p = 0.03
Huang et al. [56]	613	Birth	Ed., Occ	Adult	5 genes	↓	HSD11B2	Ed	p = 0.01
McDade et al. [57]	494	Child 4×	Misc	Adult	114 genes	↑	GNG2	Misc	q = 0.0093
McDade et al. [57]	494	Child 4×	Misc	Adult	114 genes	↓	C1S	Misc	q = 0.0093
Loucks et al. [58]^d	141	Child	Comp	Adult	198,224 CpGs	↑↓	162 CpGs	Comp	p < 0.001
Needham et al. [59]	1264	Life course	Ed	Adult	18 genes	↑	7 genes	Ed. (Child)	q < 0.20
						↑	6 genes	Ed. (Adult)	q < 0.20
						↑	10 genes	Ed	q < 0.20
Smith et al. [60]	1226	Adult	Neigh	Adult	18 genes	↑↓	12 genes	Neigh	q ≤ 0.10
Stringhini et al. [61]	857	Life course	Occ	Adult	17 genes	↑↓	2 genes	Occ. (Adult)	q ≤ 5.10 × 10⁻³
Stringhini et al. [61]	857	Life course	Occ	Adult	17 genes	↓	6 genes	Occ	q ≤ 1.49 × 10⁻³
Jones-Mason et al. [62]^e	100	Adult	Comp	Adult	SLC6A4	↑	SLC6A4	Comp	q < 0.05
Kogan et al. [63]	309	Adult	Comp	Adult	OXTR	↑	OXTR	Comp	p < 0.01
de Rooij et al. [64]	675	Adult	Comp., Ed	Adult	GR 1-C	↓	GR 1-C	Ed	p = 0.03
Simons et al. [65]	100	Adult 3×	Comp	Adult	OXTR	↑	OXTR	Comp	p ≤ 0.01
Swift-Scanlan et al. [66]	48	Adult	Comp	Adult	COMT	No findings at q < 0.05

Studies presented in this table are shown in order of DNAm assessment age, then by SEP exposure age followed by alphabetically. For individual-level study details, including covariates and number of CpG sites targeted within each gene, see Additional file 2: Table S2
Comp. composite, CpGs CpG sites, DNAm DNA methylation, Ed. education, In. income, Occ. occupation, Misc. miscellaneous (i.e., “other” domain), Neigh. neighborhood, SEP socioeconomic position
^aEffects reported from the most stringent significance test within the simplest (or unadjusted) model. General direction of effect for association between DNAm and SEP measure reported by arrows, indicating increased or decreased DNAm levels for low SEP. Associated SEP domain reported with exposure age provided in parenthesis if both child and adult SEP exposures were analyzed. p Values reported for significance threshold; q-values indicate p values corrected for multiple testing using the false discovery rate (FDR) method
^bSEP exposure and DNAm assessment ages are reported by life course group: prenatal (< 0 years), birth (~ 0 years), child (0–18 years), adult (18+ years). Number of assessments indicated (e.g., 2×, 3×) if SEP or DNAm was measured at more than one timepoint per life course group. “Life course” indicates ages of exposure spanned prenatal, birth, or childhood to adulthood
^cThe type of SEP domain covered by SEP indicators included in each study to assess socioeconomic factors. For full list of SEP indicators and domains included by individual studies, see Additional file 2: Table S2
^dLoucks et al. [58] were included in candidate gene section because study assessed SEP-DNAm associations only in CpG sites that were previously associated with BMI (FDR < 0.25) in an EWAS using the same sample
^eReported effect was found when sample was stratified by attachment styles (see Jones-Mason et al. [62] for more details)

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