Dataset Information

Diet quality and telomere length in older Australian men and women.

ABSTRACT:

Purpose

Telomere length is a biomarker of cellular ageing, with longer telomeres associated with longevity and reduced risk of chronic disease in older age. Consumption of a healthy diet may contribute to longevity via its impact on cellular ageing, but studies on diet and telomere length to date have been limited and their findings equivocal. The aim of this study was to examine associations between three indices of diet quality and telomere length in older men and women.

Methods

Adults aged 57-68 years participating in the Wellbeing, Eating and Exercise for a Long Life (WELL) study in Victoria, Australia (n = 679), completed a postal survey including an 111-item food frequency questionnaire in 2012. Diet quality was assessed via three indices: the Dietary Guideline Index, the Recommended Food Score, and the Mediterranean Diet Score. Relative telomere length was measured by quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Associations between diet quality and telomere length were assessed using linear regression adjusted for covariates.

Results

After adjustment for age, sex, education, smoking, physical activity, and body mass index (BMI), there were no significant associations between diet quality and relative telomere length.

Conclusions

In a sample of older adults residing in Victoria, Australia, men and women aged 57-68 years with better-quality diets did not have longer telomeres. Further investigation in longitudinal studies will determine whether diet can influence telomere length over time in an ageing population.

SUBMITTER: Milte CM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5847066 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Diet quality and telomere length in older Australian men and women.

Milte Catherine M CM Russell Aaron P AP Ball Kylie K Crawford David D Salmon Jo J McNaughton Sarah A SA

European journal of nutrition 20161026 1

<h4>Purpose</h4>Telomere length is a biomarker of cellular ageing, with longer telomeres associated with longevity and reduced risk of chronic disease in older age. Consumption of a healthy diet may contribute to longevity via its impact on cellular ageing, but studies on diet and telomere length to date have been limited and their findings equivocal. The aim of this study was to examine associations between three indices of diet quality and telomere length in older men and women.<h4>Methods</h4 ...[more]

PMID: 27785566

Similar Datasets

Project description:BackgroundTo date much research into nutrition and cognitive function has been at the nutrient or food level, with inconsistent results. There is increasing interest in the dietary pattern approach to assess whole diet quality and its association with cognitive function. This study investigated if diet quality is associated with cognitive function in men and women aged 55?years and over.MethodsAdults aged 55-65?years in the Wellbeing, Eating and Exercise for a Long Life (WELL) study in Victoria, Australia (n?=?617) completed a postal survey including a 111-item food frequency questionnaire in 2010 and 2014. Diet quality was assessed via the revised dietary guideline index (DGI-2013) and also by its individual components which assessed key food groups and dietary behaviours from the Australian Dietary Guidelines. The Telephone Interview of Cognitive Status (TICS-m) measured cognitive function in 2014. Associations between past (2010) and recent (2014) diet quality and its components, and cognitive function were assessed by linear regression adjusted for covariates.ResultsAfter adjustment for age, sex, education, urban/rural status and physical activity there were no associations between diet quality in 2010 and cognitive function in 2014. However participants who reported higher dietary variety (B?=?0.28, 95% CI 0.03, 0.52) and women who reported "sometimes" adding salt to food after cooking (B?=?0.98, 95% CI 0.25, 1.71) in 2010 displayed better cognitive function in 2014. In 2014, usual consumption of higher fibre bread choices in the total sample (B?=?1.32, 95% CI 0.42, 2.23), and higher diet quality (B?=?0.03, 95% CI 0.00, 0.07) and greater fluid consumption (B?=?0.14, 95% CI 0.01, 0.27) in men were all associated with better cognitive function. In addition, men who reported "usually" adding salt to their food during cooking displayed poorer cognitive function (B?=?-1.37, 95% CI -2.39, -?0.35). There were no other associations between dietary intake and cognitive function observed in the adjusted models.ConclusionAn association between dietary variety and some limited dietary behaviours and cognitive function was observed, with variation by gender. Future research should consider trajectories of dietary change over longer time periods as determinants of health and function in older age.

Project description:BACKGROUND:Research 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. METHODS:The 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. RESULTS:Six 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. CONCLUSIONS:There 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.

Dataset Information

Diet quality and telomere length in older Australian men and women.

Purpose

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Publications

Diet quality and telomere length in older Australian men and women.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure