title: Telomere length and age-at-menopause in the US.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Age-at-menopause and leukocyte telomere length (LTL) are both associated with biologic aging. Therefore, it would be reasonable to hypothesize that LTL may also serve as a marker for reproductive aging as shorter LTL may be associated with earlier age-at-menopause.
  
  
  METHODS
  We analyzed data from 799 post-menopausal (ages 41-85) participants in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (1999-2002), a nationally representative sample of U.S. women.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Controlling for behavioral, socio-demographic, and health-related determinants of menopause, we found that among non-Hispanic white women, an increase of one standard deviation in LTL was associated with a 0.43 year higher reported age-at-menopause. Among Mexican-Americans, an increase of one standard deviation in LTL was associated with a 1.56 year earlier menopause. There was no significant association between LTL and age-at-menopause among non-Hispanic black women.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our main finding is evidence of a strong interaction by race/ethnicity in the association between LTL and age-at-menopause. This evidence does not support the hypothesis that shorter LTL is a predictor of earlier age-at-menopause, as the magnitude and direction of the associations between LTL and age-at-menopause varied across racial/ethnic groups.
authors: Maternal & Child Health Program, School of Public Health, University of Maryland, College Park, United States; Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of Maryland, College Park, United States; Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Brown University, United States; Department of Epidemiology, University of Maryland, Baltimore,United States. Electronic address: Shenassa@UMD.edu.
authors: Edmond D
authors: ED
authors: Shenassa
authors: Office of Analysis and Epidemiology, National Center for Health Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,United States.
authors: Lauren M
authors: LM
authors: Rossen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D015415:Biomarkers; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005006:Ethnicity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007962:Leukocytes / Q000502:physiology*; D008593:Menopause; D008875:Middle Aged; D009749:Nutrition Surveys; D016615:Telomere / Q000502:physiology*; D014481:United States
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers
keywords: Menopause; Reproductive aging; Telomeres