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Early and recent psychosocial stress and telomere length in older adults

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 August 2015

Roxanne Schaakxs ,
Ilse Wielaard ,
Josine E. Verhoeven ,
Aartjan T. F. Beekman ,
Brenda W. J. H. Penninx  and
Hannie C. Comijs
Roxanne Schaakxs*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and EMGO Institute for Health and Care Research, VU University Medical Centre, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, PO Box 74077, 1070 BB Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Ilse Wielaard
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and EMGO Institute for Health and Care Research, VU University Medical Centre, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, PO Box 74077, 1070 BB Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Josine E. Verhoeven
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and EMGO Institute for Health and Care Research, VU University Medical Centre, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, PO Box 74077, 1070 BB Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Aartjan T. F. Beekman
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and EMGO Institute for Health and Care Research, VU University Medical Centre, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, PO Box 74077, 1070 BB Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Brenda W. J. H. Penninx
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and EMGO Institute for Health and Care Research, VU University Medical Centre, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, PO Box 74077, 1070 BB Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Hannie C. Comijs
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and EMGO Institute for Health and Care Research, VU University Medical Centre, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, PO Box 74077, 1070 BB Amsterdam, the Netherlands
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: Roxanne Schaakxs, PO Box 74077, 1070 BB Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Phone: (+31) 020-7884521. Email: [email protected].
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Abstract

Background:

Psychosocial stress has been associated with an increased risk for mental and somatic health problems across the life span. Some studies in younger adults linked this to accelerated cellular aging, indexed by shortened telomere length (TL). In older adults, the impact of psychosocial stress on TL may be different due to the lifetime exposure to competing causes of TL-shortening. This study aims to assess whether early and recent psychosocial stressors (childhood abuse, childhood adverse events, recent negative life events, and loneliness) were associated with TL in older adults.

Methods:

Data were from the Netherlands Study of Depression in Older Persons (NESDO) in which psychosocial stressors were measured in 496 persons aged 60 and older (mean age 70.6 (SD 7.4) years) during a face-to-face interview. Leukocyte TL was determined using fasting blood samples by performing quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) and was expressed in base pairs (bp).

Results:

Multiple regression analyses, adjusted for age, sex, and chronic diseases, showed that childhood abuse, recent negative life events and loneliness were unrelated to TL. Only having experienced any childhood adverse event was weakly but significantly negatively associated with TL.

Conclusions:

Our findings did not consistently confirm our hypothesis that psychosocial stress is associated with shorter TL in older adults. Healthy survivorship or other TL-damaging factors such as somatic health problems seem to dominate a potential effect of psychosocial stress on TL in older adults.

Keywords

psychosocial stresschildhood abusenegative life eventslonelinesscellular agingtelomere lengthtelomere shortening
Type
Research Article
Information
International Psychogeriatrics , Volume 28 , Issue 3 , March 2016 , pp. 405 - 413
Copyright
Copyright © International Psychogeriatric Association 2015 

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