ArticleCommunications biology2022
Investigation of a UK biobank cohort reveals causal associations of self-reported walking pace with telomere length.
Article in Communications biology, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 23 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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
23 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 39 citations in OpenAlex.
- A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis Highlights a Link Between Aerobic Fitness and Telomere Maintenance.The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences · 2025Pooled it
- Telomere length and chronological age across the human lifespan: A systematic review and meta-analysis of 414 study samples including 743,019 individuals.Ageing research reviews · 2023Pooled it
- Pilot study of epigenetic aging and treatment response to semaglutide in the SLIM LIVER study.npj aging · 2026Article
- The impact of different intensities of physical activity on aging: A Mendelian randomization study.Medicine · 2026Article
- Epigenetic Aging and Treatment Response to Semaglutide in the SLIM LIVER Study.Research square · 2025Article
- Telomere length and telomerase activity in men and non-pregnant women with and without metabolic syndrome: a systematic review and bootstrapped meta-analysis.Journal of diabetes and metabolic disorders · 2025Review
- Article
- Plasma proteomics-based organ-specific aging for all-cause mortality and cause-specific mortality: a prospective cohort study.GeroScience · 2025Article
- Shorter Leukocyte Telomere Length Is Associated with Increased Major Adverse Cardiovascular Events or Mortality in Patients with Essential Hypertension.Journal of cardiovascular translational research · 2025Article
- The performance of a machine learning model in predicting accelerometer-derived walking speed.Heliyon · 2025Article
- The Relationship Between Hypothyroidism and Pneumonia and Possible Prevention and Treatment Measures.International journal of general medicine · 2025Article
- Roles of chromatin and genome instability in cellular senescence and their relevance to ageing and related diseases.Nature reviews. Molecular cell biology · 2024Review
- The Quest for Eternal Youth: Hallmarks of Aging and Rejuvenating Therapeutic Strategies.Biomedicines · 2024Review
- Article
- Epigenetic aging in older people living with HIV in Eswatini: a pilot study of HIV and lifestyle factors and epigenetic aging.Clinical epigenetics · 2024Article
- Effect of replacing television viewing with different intensities of physical activity on COVID-19 mortality risk: Short communication from UK Biobank.Scandinavian journal of public health · 2023Article
- Left and Right Cortical Activity Arising from Preferred Walking Speed in Older Adults.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Article
- Causal effects of walking pace on osteoarthritis: a two-sample mendelian randomization study.Frontiers in genetics · 2023Article
- A set of common buccal CpGs that predict epigenetic age and associate with lifespan-regulating genes.iScience · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
12 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Walking pace is a simple and functional form of movement and a strong predictor of health status, but the nature of its association with leucocyte telomere length (LTL) is unclear. Here we investigate whether walking pace is associated with LTL, which is causally associated with several chronic diseases and has been proposed as a marker of biological age. Analyses were conducted in 405,981 UK Biobank participants. We show that steady/average and brisk walkers had significantly longer LTL compared with slow walkers, with accelerometer-assessed measures of physical activity further supporting this through an association between LTL and habitual activity intensity, but not with total amount of activity. Bi-directional mendelian randomisation analyses suggest a causal link between walking pace and LTL, but not the other way around. A faster walking pace may be causally associated with longer LTL, which could help explain some of the beneficial effects of brisk walking on health status. Given its simple measurement and low heritability, self-reported walking pace may be a pragmatic target for interventions.
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Registered trials
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.