A meta-analysis of four Dutch cohorts identifies 58 CpG sites whose blood DNA methylation is associated with educational attainment, mostly with higher methylation at higher education¶
Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · associationalr3·q2
Currency · newest study 2018 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person
Subclaims¶
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q2 i? Genome-wide meta-analysis of educational attainment and DNA methylation at 410,746 CpGs in 4152 adults identified 58 significant CpG sites mapping to 35 genes, with 44 sites (76%) showing higher methylation at higher education. → Jenny van Dongen et al 2018
Evidence¶
Jenny van Dongen et al 2018¶
Jenny van Dongen et al. (2018). DNA methylation signatures of educational attainment. npj Science of Learning 3:7. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41539-018-0020-2
q2 · i? · associational · r3
Fixed-effects meta-analysis of EWAS within four population-based cohorts (NTR, LLS, RS, LLD; total N=4152 adults), adjusting for age, sex, white blood cell counts and technical covariates. The article reports "58 signi ficant CpG sites" mapping to 35 genes, with betas ranging 0.6–6.0% methylation difference across the ridit scale.
"The meta-analysis identi fied 58 signi ficant CpG sites ( P < 1.2 × 10−7, Bonferroni correction for 410,746 tests) mapping to 35 genes"
Discussion¶
Related Claims¶
- Education-associated CpGs show dynamic methylation across foetal brain development (18 sites) and blood–brain methylation correlations (10 sites) — related
- Methylation at 33 of 58 education-associated CpGs (57%) is associated with expression of nearby transcripts in blood — related
- Education methylation signatures correlate with maternal smoking signatures and show small positive correlations with maternal folate and air pollution signatures, but not alcohol — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
- Education-associated methylation differences persist in never smokers, indicating sources beyond a person's own smoking behaviour — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
- Educational-attainment methylation sites overlap strongly with cigarette-smoke signatures, and associations remain after adjusting for smoking at 11 genome-wide significant CpGs — related
- Within twin pairs, education–methylation associations persist but are attenuated, implicating shared environmental or genetic factors — related
Page metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
type |
claim |
id |
ewas-58-cpgs-educational-attainment |
title |
A meta-analysis of four Dutch cohorts identifies 58 CpG sites whose blood DNA methylation is associated with educational attainment, mostly with higher methylation at higher education |
description |
A meta-analysis of four Dutch cohorts identifies 58 CpG sites whose blood DNA methylation is associated with educational attainment, mostly with higher methylation at higher education |
status |
review |
evidence_strength |
moderate |
newest_evidence |
2018 |
generated |
by process:wiki-ingest on 2026-10-26 |
trust |
unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content |
sources |
1 — jenny-van-dongen-et-al-2018 |
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