Systematic review of the association between chronic social stress and telomere length: A life course perspective

Oliveira, Bruna Silva; Zunzunegui, Marı́a Victoria; Quinlan, Jacklyn; Fahmi, Hassan; Tu, Mai Thanh; Guerra, Ricardo Oliveira

doi:10.1016/j.arr.2015.12.006

Cited by 112 publications

(76 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…The rich survey data from HRS allowed us to differentiate the social and traumatic adverse experiences from the financial ones, but these differences should be further investigated in other large samples and with other health outcomes. Our findings on social adversity are consistent with the majority of studies on early adversity and telomere length as reported in previous reviews of this area (31,46,47), although exceptions of individual studies exist in the literature (40,41). These findings also support previous pilot work in the HRS that reported significantly elevated expressions of genes associated with proinflammation in adults who reported experiencing childhood social and traumatic adversity (48) and support an eco-biodevelopmental conceptualization of disease risk (49).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 82%

Lifespan adversity and later adulthood telomere length in the nationally representative US Health and Retirement Study

Puterman

Gemmill

Karasek

et al. 2016

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

140

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Stress over the lifespan is thought to promote accelerated aging and early disease. Telomere length is a marker of cell aging that appears to be one mediator of this relationship. Telomere length is associated with early adversity and with chronic stressors in adulthood in many studies. Although cumulative lifespan adversity should have bigger impacts than single events, it is also possible that adversity in childhood has larger effects on later life health than adult stressors, as suggested by models of biological embedding in early life. No studies have examined the individual vs. cumulative effects of childhood and adulthood adversities on adult telomere length. Here, we examined the relationship between cumulative childhood and adulthood adversity, adding up a range of severe financial, traumatic, and social exposures, as well as comparing them to each other, in relation to salivary telomere length. We examined 4,598 men and women from the US Health and Retirement Study. Single adversities tended to have nonsignificant relations with telomere length. In adjusted models, lifetime cumulative adversity predicted 6% greater odds of shorter telomere length. This result was mainly due to childhood adversity. In adjusted models for cumulative childhood adversity, the occurrence of each additional childhood event predicted 11% increased odds of having short telomeres. This result appeared mainly because of social/traumatic exposures rather than financial exposures. This study suggests that the shadow of childhood adversity may reach far into later adulthood in part through cellular aging. cellular aging | telomeres | lifespan adversity | childhood adversity A ging cells play a crucial role in the pathogenesis of noncommunicable diseases, and telomere shortening in cells plays a part of this aging process (1, 2). Telomeres are DNAprotein caps at the ends of chromosomes that protect genetic material from degradation, and their lengths indicate cellular aging (2, 3). Experiments in rodents implicate shortened telomeres and lower activity of telomerase, the enzyme that lengthens telomeres, as causes of mitochondrial and tissue damage associated with disease pathogenesis (4-6).Telomere length is linked cross-sectionally and prospectively with human disease states in many studies. A recent meta-analysis suggests that individuals with observed short leukocyte telomeres are at an ∼80% increased risk of concurrent reports of cardiovascular disease and an ∼40% increased risk of developing cardiovascular disease in the future (7). Other recent meta-analyses support the concurrent associations between short telomeres and diabetes (8) and several cancers (9, 10). Several studies indicate that short telomeres from varied sources, including leukocytes and saliva, are related to early mortality (11-17), including a study with >60,000 adults (18), although null studies also exist (19)(20)(21)(22).Although these studies suggest that telomere length plays a role in disease, they are observational, and studies directly linking genetics...

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 82%

Lifespan adversity and later adulthood telomere length in the nationally representative US Health and Retirement Study

Puterman

Gemmill

Karasek

et al. 2016

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

140

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“…First, several studies of telomere length have found that some factors matter differently for telomere length in blacks and whites(27). Based on this literature, we conducted an additional analysis that included a term that interacted sleep duration with race to test for racial differences in the association of sleep duration with telomere length.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sleep Duration and Telomere Length in Children

James

McLanahan

Brooks‐Gunn

et al. 2017

The Journal of Pediatrics

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Objective To test the association between sleep duration and telomere length in a pediatric population. Study design We analyzed cross-sectional data for 1,567children from the age 9 study wave of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a population-based birth cohort of children born between 1998–2000 in large American cities (population > 200,000). We measured telomere length using quantitative PCR, and children’s typical nightly sleep duration was reported by their primary caregivers. Using linear regression models, we estimated the association between sleep duration and telomere length in both unadjusted models and adjusting for a number of covariates. Results We found that children with shorter sleep durations have shorter telomeres than children with longer sleep durations. Each hour less of nightly sleep duration is associated with having telomeres that are 0.015 log-kilobases per chromosome shorter (p < 0.05). We found no difference in this association by race, sex, or socioeconomic status. Conclusions We provide preliminary evidence that children with shorter sleep durations have shorter telomeres. This finding is consistent with a broader literature indicating that sub-optimal sleep duration is a risk for increased physiological stress and impaired health. Future research should address the limitations of our study design by using longitudinal study designs and telomere measurements, measuring sleep duration via polysomnography or actigraphy, and assessing the intermediate biological mechanisms of the link between sleep and telomere dynamics.

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“…For example, recent stressor exposure within the last five years (but not earlier) 24 as well as chronic social stress 25 are associated with shorter telomeres. Since the first study documenting a relationship between telomere length and perceived stress 15 , many studies measuring telomere length have included a measure of psychological stress; however, relatively few have reported the effects of perceived stress on telomere length.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perceived stress and telomere length: A systematic review, meta-analysis, and methodologic considerations for advancing the field

Mathur

Epel

Kind

et al. 2016

Brain, Behavior, and Immunity

206

148

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Importance Psychological stress contributes to numerous diseases and may do so in part through damage to telomeres, protective non-coding segments on the ends of chromosomes. Objective We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to determine the association between self-reported, perceived psychological stress (PS) and telomere length (TL). Data Sources We searched 3 databases (PubMed, PsycInfo, and Scopus), completed manual searches of published and unpublished studies, and contacted all study authors to obtain potentially relevant data. Study Selection Two independent reviewers assessed studies for original research measuring (but not necessarily reporting the correlation between) PS and TL in human subjects. 23 studies met inclusion criteria; 22 (totaling 8,948 subjects) could be meta-analyzed. Data Extraction and Synthesis We assessed study quality using modified MINORS criteria. Since not all included studies reported PS-TL correlations, we obtained them via direct calculation from author-provided data (7 studies), contact with authors (14 studies), or extraction from the published article (1 study). Main Outcomes and Measures We conducted random-effects meta-analysis on our primary outcome, the age-adjusted PS-TL correlation. We investigated potential confounders and moderators (sex, life stress exposure, and PS measure validation) via post hoc subset analyses and meta-regression. Results Increased PS was associated with a very small decrease in TL (n = 8,724 total; r = −0.06; 95% CI: −0.10, −0.008; p = 0.01; α = 0.025), adjusting for age. This relationship was similar between sexes and within studies using validated measures of PS, and marginally (nonsignificantly) stronger among samples recruited for stress exposure (r = −0.13; vs. general samples: b = −0.11; 95% CI: −0.27, 0.01; p = 0.05; α = 0.013). Publication bias may exist; correcting for its effects attenuated the relationship. Conclusions and Relevance Our analysis finds a very small, statistically significant relationship between increased PS (as measured over the past month) and decreased TL that may reflect publication bias. The association may be stronger with known major stressors and is similar in magnitude to that noted between obesity and TL. All included studies used single measures of short-term stress; the literature suggests long-term chronic stress may have a larger cumulative effect. Future research should assess for potential confounders and use longitudinal, multidimensional models of stress.

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Systematic review of the association between chronic social stress and telomere length: A life course perspective

Cited by 112 publications

References 41 publications

Lifespan adversity and later adulthood telomere length in the nationally representative US Health and Retirement Study

Lifespan adversity and later adulthood telomere length in the nationally representative US Health and Retirement Study

Sleep Duration and Telomere Length in Children

Perceived stress and telomere length: A systematic review, meta-analysis, and methodologic considerations for advancing the field

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