Evidence map›Paper›PMID 29414028›Full record

ArticlePsychoneuroendocrinology2018

Relation of long-term patterns in caregiving activity and depressive symptoms to telomere length in older women.

Shun-Chiao Chang, Marta Crous-Bou, Jennifer Prescott, Bernard Rosner, Naomi M Simon, Wei Wang, Immaculata De Vivo, Olivia I Okereke

Abstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Psychoneuroendocrinology, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
9citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

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.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

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.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

9 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Review
  2. Review
  3. Article
  4. Article
  5. Article
  6. Stress and Immunological Aging.Current opinion in behavioral sciences · 2019
    Article
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  8. Article
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

8 authors.

Shun-Chiao ChangChanning Division of Network Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
Marta Crous-BouDepartment of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Clinical Research Program, Barcelona Beta Brain Research Center, 08005 Barcelona, Spain.
Jennifer PrescottChanning Division of Network Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
Bernard RosnerChanning Division of Network Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Department of Biostatistics, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
Naomi M SimonCenter for Anxiety and Traumatic Stress Disorders, Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA 02114, USA.
Wei WangDivision of Sleep Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Department of Medicine and Neurology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
Immaculata De VivoChanning Division of Network Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Program in Genetic Epidemiology and Statistical Genetics, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
Olivia I OkerekeChanning Division of Network Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA. Electronic address: ookereke@partners.org.

Funding

Long Term Multidisciplinary Study of Cancer in Women: The Nurses Health StudyUM1CA186107 · NCI · BRIGHAM AND WOMEN'S HOSPITAL · PI ELIASSEN, A. HEATHER, STAMPFER, MEIR · 2014 to 2023
$22.3M
BIOCHEMICAL MARKERS IN THE NURSES'HEALTH STUDY COHORTR01CA049449 · NCI · BRIGHAM AND WOMEN'S HOSPITAL · PI HANKINSON, SUSAN E · 1989 to 2008
$11.3M
Novel Associations of Anxiety, Depression and Telomeres across Mid- and Late-LifeR01MH096776 · NIMH · BRIGHAM AND WOMEN'S HOSPITAL · PI OKEREKE, OLIVIA IFEOMA · 2013 to 2016
$2.0M
NCI NIH HHS R01 CA049449NCI NIH HHS UM1 CA186107NIMH NIH HHS R01 MH096776
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundResearch links psychological stress to accelerated cellular aging. Here we examined whether long-term patterns of depression and caregiving burden, forms of chronic psychological stress, were associated with shorter telomere length, a biomarker of cellular aging.

methodsThe study included 1250 healthy older women (mean: 68.0; range: 60-81 years) in the Nurses' Health Study. Long-term patterns in depressive symptoms and caregiving activity (separated into care of children/grandchildren vs. ill or disabled family members/others) incorporated questionnaire data between 1992 and 2000; relative leukocyte telomere lengths (LTLs) were measured in 2000-2001. Least-squares means LTL z-scores were calculated across categories of depression patterns and caregiving intensity.

resultsSix empirically-derived latent classes of depressive symptom trajectories were identified: minimal-stable (63.7%), mild-worsening (3.9%), subthreshold-improving (22.8%), subthreshold-worsening (2.7%), clinical range depressive-improving (6.2%), and clinical range depressive-persistent (0.6%). After collapsing trajectory patterns into 4 groups (combining those with minimal and mild symptoms into one group and those with clinical range depressive symptoms into one group) due to very small sample sizes in some groups, we observed marginal associations (p = 0.07): e.g., the least-squares means LTL z-scores were lowest (-0.08; 95% CI: -0.22 to 0.06) for the clinical range depressive symptoms group and highest (0.12; 0.04-0.20) for the subthreshold-improving group (Tukey's post-hoc pairwise p = 0.07). With six depressive symptom trajectories, no significant associations were observed with regard to telomere lengths. There were no significant associations between caregiving intensity and LTLs.

conclusionsThere were no associations between long-term patterns of caregiving burden and telomere lengths among older women. Possible differences in telomere lengths by types of long-term depressive symptom trajectories may warrant further investigation.

Indexed as

AgedCaregiversCellular SenescenceDepressionDepressive DisorderFemaleHumansMiddle AgedPsychologyStress, PsychologicalTelomereTelomere HomeostasisTelomere ShorteningCaregivingCumulative burdenDepressionTelomere lengthTrajectoryWomen

Identifiers

PMID29414028
PMCPMC5878722

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Registered trials

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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.