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The Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences Advance Access originally published online on May 12, 2009
The Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences 2009 64A(8):860-864; doi:10.1093/gerona/glp061
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© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org.

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

Omer T. Njajou1, Wen-Chi Hsueh1, Elizabeth H. Blackburn2, Anne B. Newman3, Shih-Hsuan Wu1, Rongling Li4, Eleanor M. Simonsick5, Tamara M. Harris6, Steve R. Cummings7, Richard M. Cawthon8 and for the Health ABC study

1 Department of Medicine
2 Department of Biochemistry & Biophysics, University of California, San Francisco
3 Department of Epidemiology, University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
4 Department of Preventive Medicine, University of Tennessee, Memphis
5 Clinical Research Branch, National Institute on Aging, Baltimore, Maryland
6 Laboratory of Epidemiology, Demography and Biometry, National Institute on Aging, Bethesda, Maryland
7 San Francisco Coordinating Center, California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute, San Francisco
8 Department of Human Genetics, University of Utah, Salt Lake City

Address correspondence to Wen-Chi Hsueh, MPH, PhD, Departments of Medicine and Institute for Human Genetics, 513 Parnassus Street, HSE 672, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94143-0794. Email: wen-chi.hsueh{at}ucsf.edu


  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 (β = 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.

Keywords Telomere; Survival; Life span; Health status; Years of healthy life

Received: November 4, 2008; Accepted: March 30, 2009

Decision Editor: Huber R. Warner, PhD


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