@article {1265, title = {Leukocyte telomere length and mortality in the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci}, volume = {66}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Apr}, pages = {421-9}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Leukocyte telomere length (LTL) is related to diseases of aging, but studies of mortality have been inconsistent.

METHODS: We evaluated LTL in relation to total mortality and specific cause of death in 1,136 participants of the Cardiovascular Health Study who provided blood samples in 1992-1993 and survived through 1997-1998. LTL was measured by Southern blots of the terminal restriction fragments. Cause of death was classified by a committee of physicians reviewing death certificates, medical records, and informant interviews.

RESULTS: A total of 468 (41.2\%) deaths occurred over 6.1 years of follow-up in participants with mean age of 73.9 years (SD 4.7), 65.4\% female, and 14.8\% African American. Although increased age and male gender were associated with shorter LTLs, African Americans had significantly longer LTLs independent of age and sex (p < .001). Adjusted for age, sex, and race, persons with the shortest quartile of LTL were 60\% more likely to die during follow-up than those within the longest quartile (hazard ratio: 1.61, 95\% confidence interval: 1.22-2.12, p = .001). The association remained after adjustment for cardiovascular disease risk factors. Evaluations of cause of death found LTL to be related to deaths due to an infectious disease etiology (hazard ratio: 2.80, 95\% confidence interval: 1.32-5.94, p = .007), whereas a borderline association was found for cardiac deaths (hazard ratio: 1.82, 95\% confidence interval: 0.95-3.49, p = .07) in adjusted models. Risk estimates for deaths due to cancer, dementia, and ischemic stroke were not significant.

CONCLUSION: These data weakly corroborate prior findings of associations between LTL and mortality in the elderly.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Aging, Body Mass Index, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cause of Death, Comorbidity, Coronary Disease, Diabetes Mellitus, Female, Humans, Hypertension, Leukocytes, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Prospective Studies, Smoking, Stroke, Telomere}, issn = {1758-535X}, doi = {10.1093/gerona/glq224}, author = {Fitzpatrick, Annette L and Kronmal, Richard A and Kimura, Masayuki and Gardner, Jeffrey P and Psaty, Bruce M and Jenny, Nancy S and Tracy, Russell P and Hardikar, Sheetal and Aviv, Abraham} }