ArticlePLOS digital health2026
Social media use duration and epigenetic aging among U.S. adults in the MIDUS refresher study.
Article in PLOS digital health, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Social media platforms are central to daily social interaction, with emerging evidence linking higher engagement to adverse outcomes, including increased stress, sleep disturbance, and depressive symptoms. However, whether these digital exposures translate into measurable acceleration of biological aging remains unexplored, particularly among midlife and older adults. We analyzed cross-sectional data from 323 participants (Mean age = 47.5 years, SD = 11.8) in the Midlife in the United States Refresher Study who completed daily diary assessments of social media use duration and provided blood samples for epigenetic aging measurement. Epigenetic aging was quantified using DunedinPACE and GrimAge2 from genome-wide DNA methylation analysis. In a linear regression model controlling for differences in inter-assessment intervals, sociodemographic characteristics, health behaviors, and self-reported mental health, each additional hour of daily social media use was significantly associated with a 0.19-SD higher DunedinPACE score (95% CI: 0.08 to 0.29, p < 0.001). However, further adjustment for body mass index attenuated this association (0.09 SD increase, 95% CI: -0.01, 0.19, p = 0.088), suggesting that BMI may reflect the downstream consequences of broader behavioral, metabolic, psychosocial, environmental, and health-related processes relevant to the observed relationship. No associations were observed with GrimAge2 across any model. These findings provide preliminary evidence that social media use duration is associated with the pace of biological aging as measured by DunedinPACE. Future research should employ longitudinal designs with direct measurement of digital engagement, behavioral and psychosocial processes, and physiological mechanisms to clarify how digital environments may relate to biological aging over time.
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.