ArticleSocial science & medicine (1982)2016
Marital disruption is associated with shorter salivary telomere length in a probability sample of older adults.
Article in Social science & medicine (1982), 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers.
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Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed.
- Do divorce and widowhood increase mortality risk? A 35-year longitudinal cohort study in a Norwegian population: the HUNT study.BMJ public health · 2026Article
- Gender differences in the association between marriage and epigenetic age.Frontiers in aging · 2026Article
- The impact of childhood maltreatment and parental styles on telomere length: the modulatory role of A118G.European journal of psychotraumatology · 2025Article
- The biological consequences of grandparental death for children: An analysis of telomere length.SSM - population health · 2025Article
- Marital and living status and biological ageing trajectories: a longitudinal cohort study with a 20-year follow-up.Biogerontology · 2025Article
- Trauma, adversity, and biological aging: behavioral mechanisms relevant to treatment and theory.Translational psychiatry · 2024Review
- Partnership status and positive DNA methylation age acceleration across the adult lifespan in the UK.SSM - population health · 2023Article
- Psychic Life-Biological Molecule Bidirectional Relationship: Pathways, Mechanisms, and Consequences for Medical and Psychological Sciences-A Narrative Review.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Review
- Postpartum sleep loss and accelerated epigenetic aging.Sleep health · 2021Article
- Stress and Salivary Telomere Length in the Second Half of Life: A Comparison of Life-course Models.Advances in life course research · 2019Article
- Marriage, divorce, and the immune system.The American psychologist · 2018Review
- Does Telomere Length Indicate Biological, Physical, and Cognitive Health Among Older Adults? Evidence from the Health and Retirement Study.The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences · 2018Article
- A scoping systematic review of social stressors and various measures of telomere length across the life course.Ageing research reviews · 2018Article
- Evaluating minimally invasive sample collection methods for telomere length measurement.American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council · 2018Article
- Sexual intimacy in couples is associated with longer telomere length.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2017Article
- Does Salivary Telomere Length Explain Race/Ethnic Differences in Aging?Biodemography and social biologyArticle
- Establishment of Prognostic Nomogram for Male Breast Cancer Patients: A Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results Database Analysis.Cancer control : journal of the Moffitt Cancer CenterArticle
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3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
rationaleMarital disruption (i.e., marital separation, divorce) is associated with a wide range of poor mental and physical health outcomes, including increased risk for all-cause mortality. One biological intermediary that may help explain the association between marital disruption and poor health is accelerated cellular aging.
objectiveThis study examines the association between marital disruption and salivary telomere length in a United States probability sample of adults ≥50 years of age.
methodParticipants were 3526 individuals who participated in the 2008 wave of the Health and Retirement Study. Telomere length assays were performed using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) on DNA extracted from saliva samples. Health and lifestyle factors, traumatic and stressful life events, and neuroticism were assessed via self-report. Linear regression analyses were conducted to examine the associations between predictor variables and salivary telomere length.
resultsBased on their marital status data in the 2006 wave, people who were separated or divorced had shorter salivary telomeres than people who were continuously married or had never been married, and the association between marital disruption and salivary telomere length was not moderated by gender or neuroticism. Furthermore, the association between marital disruption and salivary telomere length remained statistically significant after adjusting for demographic and socioeconomic variables, neuroticism, cigarette use, body mass, traumatic life events, and other stressful life events. Additionally, results revealed that currently married adults with a history of divorce evidenced shorter salivary telomeres than people who were continuously married or never married.
conclusionAccelerated cellular aging, as indexed by telomere shortening, may be one pathway through which marital disruption is associated with morbidity and mortality.
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