SynthesisExperimental gerontology2016
Telomere length and health outcomes: A two-sample genetic instrumental variables analysis.
Synthesis in Experimental gerontology, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 30 citations in OpenAlex.
- Telomere length as a biomarker for cerebrovascular diseases: current evidence.Molecular biology reports · 2024Review
- Persistent organic pollutant exposure contributes to Black/White differences in leukocyte telomere length in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Genetically Increased Telomere Length and Aging-Related Traits in the U.K. Biobank.The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences · 2021Article
- Association between telomere length in peripheral blood leukocytes and risk of ischemic stroke in a Han Chinese population: a linear and non-linear Mendelian randomization analysis.Journal of translational medicine · 2020Article
- Higher chocolate intake is associated with longer telomere length among adolescents.Pediatric research · 2020Article
- Telomere length and aging-related outcomes in humans: A Mendelian randomization study in 261,000 older participants.Aging cell · 2019Article
- Quality and quantity: The association of state-level educational policies with later life cardiovascular disease.Preventive medicine · 2019Article
- Educational attainment and cardiovascular disease in the United States: A quasi-experimental instrumental variables analysis.PLoS medicine · 2019Article
- No Causal Effect of Telomere Length on Ischemic Stroke and Its Subtypes: A Mendelian Randomization Study.Cells · 2019Article
- Telomere Length: A Potential Biomarker for the Risk and Prognosis of Stroke.Frontiers in neurology · 2019Review
- 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
- Lifetime socioeconomic status and early life microbial environments predict adult blood telomere length in the Philippines.American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council · 2018Article
- Polygenic risk score of shorter telomere length and risk of depression and anxiety in women.Journal of psychiatric research · 2018Article
- Article
- Two-sample Mendelian randomization: avoiding the downsides of a powerful, widely applicable but potentially fallible technique.International journal of epidemiology · 2016Article
- Racial and Socioeconomic Variation in Genetic Markers of Telomere Length: A Cross-Sectional Study of U.S. Older Adults.EBioMedicine · 2016Article
- Does Salivary Telomere Length Explain Race/Ethnic Differences in Aging?Biodemography and social biologyArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
objectivePrevious studies linking telomere length (TL) and health have been largely associational. We apply genetic instrumental variables (IV) analysis, also known as Mendelian randomization, to test the hypothesis that shorter TL leads to poorer health. This method reduces bias from reverse causation or confounding.
methodsWe used two approaches in this study that rely on two separate data sources: (1) individual-level data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) (N=3734), and (2) coefficients from genome-wide association studies (GWAS). We employed two-sample genetic IV analyses, constructing a polygenic risk score (PRS) of TL-associated single nucleotide polymorphisms. The first approach examined the association of the PRS with nine individual health outcomes in HRS. The second approach took advantage of estimates available in GWAS databases to estimate the impact of TL on five health outcomes using an inverse variance-weighted meta-analytic technique.
resultsUsing individual-level data, shorter TL was marginally statistically significantly associated with decreased risk of stroke and increased risk of heart disease. Using the meta-analytic approach, shorter TL was associated with increased risk of coronary artery disease (OR 1.02 per 100 base pairs, 95%CI: 1.00, 1.03). DISCUSSION: With the exception of a small contribution to heart disease, our findings suggest that TL may be a marker of disease rather than a cause. They also demonstrate the utility of the inverse variance-weighted meta-analytic approach when examining small effect sizes.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.