An EWAS of dementia biomarkers and their associations with age, African ancestry, and PTSD

Clinical Epigenetics

Table 1 Sample descriptive statistics and bivariate correlations with the Simoa factor scores

	N or M	% or SD	Factor A	Factor TN
Age (mean/SD)	51.56	11.4	0.377***	0.528***
APOEε4 carrier count			− 0.053	− 0.030
(One allele)	224	25.8
(Two alleles)	20	2.2
Sex			− 0.001	− 0.021
Male	523	61.6
Female	326	38.4
Self-identified Race
White	574	67.6
Black	95	11.2
Asian/Pacific Islander	10	1.2
Native American/Alaskan Native	64	7.5
Self-identified Ethnicity
Hispanic/Latino	123	14.5
White, non-Hispanic	531	62.5
Ancestral Principal Components
PC1			0.107**	0.055
PC2			− 0.073*	− 0.079*
PC3			− 0.014	− 0.040
Veteran	580	68.3	0.005	− 0.017
Current Medications^a
SSRI/SNRIs	251	29.6	< 0.000	0.010
Other antidepressants	160	18.8	0.041	0.041
Typical/atypical antipsychotic	97	11.4	− 0.101**	− 0.106**
Sedatives, hypnotics, anxiolytics	138	17.4	− 0.018	− 0.020
Current PTSD Diagnosis^b	311	36.6	− 0.025	− 0.098**
PTSD Symptom Severity (mean/SD)	0.31	0.2	− 0.062	− 0.133***
TLEQ (mean/SD)	1.73	1.94	0.115**	0.069
Current MDD Diagnosis	162	19.1	0.041	− 0.045
Current AUD Diagnosis	64	7.5	− 0.015	− 0.050
DNAm Smoking Score (mean/SD)	− 2.65	34.4	0.065	0.085*

The first two columns list the sample ns and percentages (unless specified as means/SDs). The second two columns list the bivariate correlations between each independent variable and factor scores derived from the CFA. These scores reflect each participant’s level on the latent Simoa variable. N = 849 except where otherwise noted
PTSD symptom severity was a standard score ranging from 0–1; AUD Alcohol Use Disorder; DNAm DNA methylation; MDD Major Depressive Disorder; SSRI/SNRI Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor/serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor; TLEQ Traumatic Life Events Questionnaire
^an = 789
^bPTSD symptom severity was used in the analysis and clinician diagnosis is reported here for descriptive purposes
*p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001

ISSN: 1868-7083