title: Religious Involvement and Telomere Length in Women Family Caregivers.
abstract: Telomere length (TL) is an indicator of cellular aging associated with longevity and psychosocial stress. We examine here the relationship between religious involvement and TL in 251 stressed female family caregivers recruited into a 2-site study. Religious involvement, perceived stress, caregiver burden, depressive symptoms, and social support were measured and correlated with TL in whole blood leukocytes. Results indicated a U-shaped relationship between religiosity and TL. Those scoring in the lowest 10% on religiosity tended to have the longest telomeres (5743 bp ± 367 vs. 5595 ± 383, p = 0.069). However, among the 90% of caregivers who were at least somewhat religious, religiosity was significantly and positively related to TL after controlling for covariates (B = 1.74, SE = 0.82, p = 0.034). Whereas nonreligious caregivers have relatively long telomeres, we found a positive relationship between religiosity and TL among those who are at least somewhat religious.
authors.affiliation: *Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC; †King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; ‡Ningxia Medical University, Yinchuan, PR China; §Department of Research, Glendale Adventist Medical Center, Glendale, CA; and ∥Center for Aging and Human Development, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC.
authors.forename: Harold G
authors.initials: HG
authors.lastname: Koenig
authors.forename: Bruce
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Nelson
authors.forename: Sally F
authors.initials: SF
authors.lastname: Shaw
authors.forename: Salil
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Saxena
authors.forename: Harvey Jay
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Cohen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015141:Los Angeles; D008875:Middle Aged; D009657:North Carolina; D060888:Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012069:Religion and Psychology; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000235:genetics / Q000523:psychology*; D016615:Telomere / Q000235:genetics*; D059506:Telomere Shortening / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology