Background Depression in middle-aged and older adults is a major contributor to disability, yet upstream social adversity remains underrecognized in prevention. We assessed whether food insecurity (FI) was associated with incident depression and depressive-symptom burden in the US Health and Retirement Study, and whether epigenetic age acceleration (EAA) mediated this association. Methods FI was measured using the six-item US Department of Agriculture Food Security Survey Module. Depressive symp