Sex differences in the association between salivary telomere length and multimorbidity within the US Health & Retirement Study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Telomere length is associated with several physical and mental health conditions, but whether it is a marker of multimorbidity is unclear. We investigated associations between telomere length and multimorbidity by sex.

Methods

Data from adults (N = 5,495) aged ≥50 years were taken from the US Health and Retirement Study (2008-14). Telomere length was measured in 2008 from salivary samples. The cross-sectional associations between telomere length and eight chronic health conditions were explored using logistic regression, adjusting for confounders and stratified by sex. Logistic, ordinal and multinomial regression models were calculated to explore relationships between telomere length and multimorbidity (using a binary variable and a sum of the number of health con

SUBMITTER: Niedzwiedz CL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6984958 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature