Association Between Telomere Length, Specific Causes of Death, and Years of Healthy Life in Health, Aging, and Body Composition, a Population-based Cohort Study

Overview

Journal J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci

Specialty Geriatrics

Date 2009 May 14

PMID 19435951

Citations 111

Authors

Omer T Njajou

Wen-Chi Hsueh

Elizabeth H Blackburn

Anne B Newman

Shih-Hsuan Wu

Rongling Li

Eleanor M Simonsick

Tamara M Harris

Steve R Cummings

Richard M Cawthon

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Although telomere length (TL) is known to play a critical role in cellular senescence, the relationship of TL to aging and longevity in humans is not well understood. In a large biracial population-based cohort, we tested the hypotheses that elderly persons with shorter TL in peripheral white blood cells have poorer survival, shorter life span, and fewer years of healthy life (YHL). Associations were evaluated using Cox proportional hazard models and linear regression analyses where appropriate. TL (in kilo base pairs) was not associated with overall survival (hazard ratio 1.0; 95% confidence interval 0.9-1.1) or death from any specific underlying cause including infectious diseases, cancer, or cardiac and cerebrovascular diseases. TL, however, was positively associated with more YHL (beta = 0.08 +/- 0.04, p = .03). Findings suggest that TL may not be a strong biomarker of survival in older individuals, but it may be an informative biomarker of healthy aging.

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