Association between shingles vaccination and slower biological aging: Evidence from a U.S. population-based cohort study.

Abstract

There is growing interest in whether adult vaccines such as shingles vaccine may slow biological aging beyond preventing acute infections. Using data from the nationally representative U.S. Health and Retirement Study, we examined whether shingles vaccination is associated with more favorable profiles across seven biological aging domains: inflammation, innate and adaptive immunity, cardiovascular hemodynamics, neurodegeneration, and epigenetic and transcriptomic aging, as well as a composite biological aging score. Analyses included adults aged 70+ in 2016 (n = 3,884), with biological measures drawn from venous blood, flow cytometry, and physical assessments. Weighted linear regressions adjusted for sociodemographic, and health covariates. Shingles vaccination was significantly associated with lower inflammation scores (b=-0.14, p = 0.0027), slower epigenetic (b=-0.17, p = 0.0001) and transcriptomic aging (b=-0.19, p < .0001), and a lower composite biological aging score (b=-0.18, p = 0.0002), suggesting potential benefits for systemic inflammation, molecular and overall biological aging. In contrast, vaccination was linked to higher adaptive immunity scores (b = 0.09, p = 0.0133), an unexpected finding warranting further investigation. Timing analyses indicated that epigenetic, transcriptomic and overall composite biological aging improvements were most pronounced within three years post-vaccination, with slower aging persisting beyond this window. The results support the hypothesis that shingles vaccination may influence key biological systems relevant to aging, though effects appear domain-specific and vary over time. Longitudinal studies are needed to confirm these patterns and explore implications for long-term health. This study adds to emerging evidence that vaccines could play a role in strategies to promote healthy aging by modulating biological systems beyond infection prevention.