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

ABSTRACT: 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.

SUBMITTER: Chang SC

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5878722 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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

Chang Shun-Chiao SC Crous-Bou Marta M Prescott Jennifer J Rosner Bernard B Simon Naomi M NM Wang Wei W De Vivo Immaculata I Okereke Olivia I OI

Psychoneuroendocrinology 20180109

<h4>Background</h4>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.<h4>Methods</h4>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 childr ...[more]

PMID: 29414028

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Project description:Older adults are more susceptible to higher inflammatory levels and depression. Moreover, diet may influence inflammation as well as depression but no previous study examined whether inflammatory dietary patterns are related to depression in an older population. To investigate the longitudinal association between inflammatory dietary patterns (using reduced rank regression (RRR)) and depressive symptoms in a population sample of Italian older adults.We included 827 participants (aged?65years) at baseline in 1998. Follow-up measurements were collected after 3, 6 and 9years. We used RRR to identify inflammatory dietary patterns at baseline. The Centre for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CES-D) scale was used to assess depressive symptoms by using continuous scores and depression by using a cut-off point (CES-D?20).We identified two inflammatory dietary patterns using different sets of response variables. Dietary pattern I was related to inflammatory markers C-reactive protein (CRP), interleukin (IL)-6, tumor necrosis factor ? and was characterized by high intakes of refined grains, sweet snacks, pasta and rice. After full adjustment for confounders, no longitudinal association was found when comparing extreme quartiles of this dietary pattern and depressive symptoms (Q1vs Q4, model 4: B=0.04, 95% CI: -0.06, 0.13) or depression (Q1vs Q4, model 4: OR=0.90, 95% CI: 0.55, 1.45). Dietary pattern II was related to inflammatory markers CRP, IL-18, IL-1?, IL-1 receptor antagonist and was characterized by high intakes of pasta, sugar-sweetened beverages, processed meat and chocolate and sweets. When comparing extreme quartiles, this dietary pattern was not longitudinally associated with depressive symptoms (Q1vs Q4, model 4: B=-0.04, 95% CI: -0.13, 0.05) but an inverse association was found for depression (Q1vs Q4, model 4: OR=0.56, 95% CI: 0.40, 0.94).Our study does not support the hypothesis that dietary patterns linked to inflammatory markers are associated with higher depressive symptoms and higher depression incidence. However, dietary intake in our population of older adults was quite homogeneous which makes it difficult to show clear associations.

Project description:Long-term care systems may alleviate caregiver burdens, particularly for those with fewer resources. However, it remains unclear whether socioeconomic disparity in caregiver burdens exists under a public, universal long-term care insurance (LTCI) system. This study examined income-based inequalities in caregiving time and depressive symptoms in Japanese older family caregivers. We further compared inequality in depressive symptoms with that of non-caregivers to evaluate whether family caregiving exacerbates this disparity.Data were obtained from a cross-sectional, nationwide survey conducted by the Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study in 2013. Participants were functionally independent older adults aged ?65 years (N = 21,584). Depressive symptoms were assessed using the Geriatrics Depression Scale (GDS); caregiving hours per week, household income, and other covariates were also assessed.Family caregivers occupied 8.3% of the total. A Poisson regression model revealed that caregivers in lower income groups (compared to those in the highest) were 1.32 to 1.95 and 1.63 to 2.68 times more likely to engage in ?36 and ?72 hours/week of caregiving, respectively. As for the GDS (?5), an excess risk was found in the caregivers in lower (compared to higher) income groups (adjusted prevalence ratio: 1.57-3.10). However, an interaction effect of income by caregiving role indicated no significant difference in inequality between caregivers and non-caregivers (p = .603). The excess risk for GDS (?5) in the caregivers compared to non-caregivers was observed across income groups.Our findings revealed a possible disparity in family caregivers under the public LTCI system. Further studies should examine factors associated with longer caregiving hours in lower income households. Our findings also suggest the necessity for more efforts to alleviate depressive symptoms in family caregivers under the LTCI system regardless of income level, rather than exclusively supporting those with a low income.

Dataset Information

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

Publications

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

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