title: Telomere Length Among Older U.S. Adults: Differences by Race/Ethnicity, Gender, and Age.
abstract: We examine race/ethnic, gender, and age differences in telomere length (TL) within a diverse, nationally representative sample of older adults.
  
  
  
  Data come from 5,228 White, Black, and Hispanic respondents aged 54+ in the 2008 Health and Retirement Study. TL was assayed from saliva using quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) by comparing telomere sequence copy number with a single gene copy number (T/S ratio). Linear regression was used to examine TL by race/ethnicity, gender, and age adjusting for social, economic, and health characteristics.
  
  
  
  Women had longer TL than men (p < .05). Blacks ( p < .05) and Hispanics ( p < .10) had longer TL than Whites. Black women and men had the longest TL relative to other groups ( p < .05), while White men had the shortest TL ( p < .05). Black women and Hispanic men showed greater differences in TL with age.
  
  
  
  Findings indicate social patterns in TL by race/ethnicity, gender, and age among older adults do not reflect differences observed in most population health outcomes.
authors.affiliation: 1 University of Southern California, USA.
authors.forename: Lauren
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.affiliation: 2 University of Michigan, USA.
authors.forename: Belinda
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Needham
authors.affiliation: 1 University of Southern California, USA.
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ailshire
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging; D015415:Biomarkers; D005260:Female; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008913:Minority Groups; D036301:Qualitative Research; D016615:Telomere / Q000235:genetics*; D014481:United States
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers
keywords: accelerated aging; biomarkers of aging; health disparities; minority aging; social epidemiology