Health and Retirement Study (HRS) DNA Methylation

Since 1992, the Health and Retirement Study (HRS, a cooperative agreement between the National Institute on Aging (NIA) and the University of Michigan, NIA U01AG009740) has been the largest, representative longitudinal study of Americans over age 50. Built on a national probability sample with oversamples of minorities, it is the model for a network of harmonized international longitudinal studies of work, health, social, psychological, family and economic status through critical life transitions and trajectories related to retirement, economic security, health and function, social and behavioral function and support systems.  Core interviews take place every two years and are supplemented by mail surveys, biomarker collections, administrative linkages, and other sources.

Provided in this dataset is DNA methylation data from the 2016 Venous Blood Study that underwent a process of quality control measures by the University of Minnesota and the Survey Research Center at the University of Michigan. DNA methylation assays were performed on 4,018 subjects at the University of Minnesota on the Infinium MethylationEPIC v1.0, which captured DNA methylation data for 836,660 methylation probes.