ArticlePsychosomatic medicine
Depressive Symptoms and Salivary Telomere Length in a Probability Sample of Middle-Aged and Older Adults.
Article in Psychosomatic medicine. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Role of telomere length and telomerase activity in accelerated cellular aging and major depressive disorder: a systematic review.Molecular psychiatry · 2025Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Weight Loss Maintenance and Cellular Aging in the Supporting Health Through Nutrition and Exercise Study.Psychosomatic medicine · 2018Trial
- Associations among temperament characteristics and telomere length and attrition rate in early childhood.Developmental psychology · 2024Article
- Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Depression, and Accelerated Aging: Leukocyte Telomere Length in the Nurses' Health Study II.Biological psychiatry global open science · 2023Article
- Telomere Length and ADHD Symptoms in Young Adults.Journal of attention disorders · 2021Article
- Association of sleep quality with telomere length, a marker of cellular aging: A retrospective cohort study of older adults in the United States.Sleep health · 2020Article
- 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
- Stress, Telomeres, and Psychopathology: Toward a Deeper Understanding of a Triad of Early Aging.Annual review of clinical psychology · 2018Review
- Does Salivary Telomere Length Explain Race/Ethnic Differences in Aging?Biodemography and social biologyArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveTo examine the association between depressive symptoms and salivary telomere length in a probability sample of middle-aged and older adults, and to evaluate age and sex as potential moderators of this association and test whether this association was incremental to potential confounds.
methodsParticipants were 3,609 individuals from the 2008 wave of the Health and Retirement Study. Telomere length assays were performed using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction on DNA extracted from saliva samples. Depressive symptoms were assessed via interview, and health and lifestyle factors, traumatic life events, and neuroticism were assessed via self-report. Regression analyses were conducted to examine the associations between predictor variables and salivary telomere length.
resultsAfter adjusting for demographics, depressive symptoms were negatively associated with salivary telomere length (b = -.003; p = .014). Furthermore, this association was moderated by sex (b = .005; p = .011), such that depressive symptoms were significantly and negatively associated with salivary telomere length for men (b = - .006; p < .001) but not for women (b = - .001; p = .644). The negative association between depressive symptoms and salivary telomere length in men remained statistically significant after additionally adjusting for cigarette smoking, body mass index, chronic health conditions, childhood and lifetime exposure to traumatic life events, and neuroticism.
conclusionsHigher levels of depressive symptoms were associated with shorter salivary telomeres in men, and this association was incremental to several potential confounds. Shortened telomeres may help account for the association between depression and poor physical health and mortality.
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