Lifecourse Adversity and Telomere Length in Older Women from Northeast Brazil

Abstract

We examined associations between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and shorter telomere length (TL) in 83 older women, including 42 women with less than secondary education and 41 with secondary or more education in a city of Northeast Brazil, a region with substantial socioeconomic inequalities. The low education sample was selected from a representative survey at local neighborhood health centers, while the high education group consisted of a convenience sample recruited by advertising in community centers and centers affiliated with the local university. Relative leukocyte TL was measured by quantitative polymerase chain reaction from blood samples. ACEs were self-reported. Spline linear regression was fitted to assess the strength of the associations between ACEs and TL. Among women with low education, median TL was 1.02 compared with 0.64 in the high education group (p = 0.0001). Natural log-transformed T/S ratio as the dependent variable was used in analysis. Women with low education had been exposed to more ACEs, and among them those experiencing two or more ACEs had longer TL than women exposed to ≤1 ACEs (p = 0.03); among women with high education, this difference was not significant (p = 0.49). In analyses adjusted by age, education, and parental abuse of alcohol, the linear trend of higher TL with increasing ACEs was confirmed (p = 0.02), and the mean difference in TL between groups remained significant (p = 0.002). The unexpected positive relationship between low education and ACEs with TL suggests that older adults who have survived harsh conditions prevailing in Northeast Brazil have the longest TL of their birth cohort.

Adolescent Childbirth Is Associated With Greater Framingham Risk Scores for Cardiovascular Disease Among Participants of the IMIAS (International Mobility in Aging Study)

“…Furthermore, all study participants passed the orientation scale of the Leganes cognitive test for dementia, limiting the possibility that cognitive decline influenced recall . More important, selective survival may have influenced our results, likely reducing the strength of association observed . If exposure of early AFB is associated with higher CVD risk, a larger proportion of high‐risk individuals may have “selected out” of the sample by not surviving to recruitment.…”

“…37,38 More important, selective survival may have influenced our results, likely reducing the strength of association observed. [72][73][74] If exposure of early AFB is associated with higher CVD risk, a larger proportion of high-risk individuals may have "selected out" of the sample by not surviving to recruitment. Sampled women were between 64 and 75 years; in places like Natal, Brazil, these women have nearly doubled their life expectancy at birth.…”

“…Sampled women were between 64 and 75 years; in places like Natal, Brazil, these women have nearly doubled their life expectancy at birth. 74 The FRS equation that we used is typically used to predict 10-year CVD risk in a clinical setting for individual patients with no CVD diagnosed. Our analyses examining the association of AFB, parity, and cardiovascular risk, measured by FRS, used a sample that contained participants with and without CVD.…”

Leukocyte Telomere Length and Chronic Conditions in Older Women of Northeast Brazil: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…Using a life course approach, we have previously reported that three types of chronic social stress (poverty, violence and caregiving of a dependent person) are associated with telomere erosion [ 5 ]. Lower socioeconomic status (SES) is generally associated with shorter telomeres [ 6 , 7 ], but results are not consistent across ethnic groups [ 7 ], or in older adults who have exceeded their life expectancy at birth and who can be considered survivors of their birth cohorts [ 8 ].…”

“…Our study population comprised survivors of their birth cohort, meaning women who survived more than 30 years beyond their life expectancy at birth. Among these women, adverse childhood experience and low education were positively associated with TL [ 8 ]. Among these survivors, those who experienced adverse events and survived had the longest telomeres, so we concluded that their long average TL had conferred the highest survival advantage to them, despite adversity.…”