Accelerated DNA methylation age plays a role in the impact of cardiovascular risk factors on the human heart.

"Declarations Ethics approval and consent to participateThe 2006–2010 NSHD data collection sweep included an in-depth cardiovascular assessment and was granted ethical approval from the Greater Manchester Local Research Ethics Committee and the Scotland Research Ethics Committee [31], with written informed consent obtained from all study participants. Our project was approved by the NSHD committee. All procedures performed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Competing interestsThe views expressed in this article are those of the authors. TTS is owner and founder of Nicollier-Schlegel SARL, which performs ECG interpretation consultancy using software that can quantify the advanced ECG measures used in the current study. TTS and MU are owners and founders of Advanced ECG Systems, a company that is developing commercial applications of advanced ECG technology used in the current study. JCM is the chief executive officer of Myocardium AI and has served on advisory boards for Genzyme and Sanofi. The remaining authors declare that they have no potential conflicts of interest. Competing interests The views expressed in this article are those of the authors. TTS is owner and founder of Nicollier-Schlegel SARL, which performs ECG interpretation consultancy using software that can quantify the advanced ECG measures used in the current study. TTS and MU are owners and founders of Advanced ECG Systems, a company that is developing commercial applications of advanced ECG technology used in the current study. JCM is the chief executive officer of Myocardium AI and has served on advisory boards for Genzyme and Sanofi. The remaining authors declare that they have no potential conflicts of interest."

"Funding This study was funded by the UK Medical Research Council (program codes MC_UU_12019/1; MC_UU_12019/4; MC_UU_12019/5). G.C. is supported by British Heart Foundation (MyoFit46 Special Programme Grant SP/20/2/34841), the Barts Charity HeartOME1000 project grant (MGU0427 / G-001411) and by the NIHR UCL Hospitals Biomedical Research Centre. J.C.M. is directly and indirectly supported by the UCL Hospitals NIHR BRC and Biomedical Research Unit at Barts Hospital respectively. AH receives support from the British Heart Foundation, the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the Horizon 2020 Framework Programme of the European Union, the National Institute on Aging, the National Institute for Health Research University College London Hospitals Biomedical Research Centre, the UK Medical Research Council and works in a unit that receives support from the UK Medical Research Council. None of the funders was involved in the study design, the collection, the analysis, the interpretation of the data, and in the decision to submit the article for publication. For the purpose of open access, the authors have applied a creative commons attribution (CC BY) license to any author accepted manuscript version arising."