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Associations of Leukocyte Telomere Length With Aerobic and Muscular Fitness in Young Adults

Williams, DM; Buxton, JL; Kantomaa, MT; Tammelin, TH; Blakemore, AIF; Järvelin, M-R; (2017) Associations of Leukocyte Telomere Length With Aerobic and Muscular Fitness in Young Adults. American Journal of Epidemiology , 185 (7) pp. 529-537. 10.1093/aje/kww123. Green open access

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Abstract

Decline in both telomere length and physical fitness over the life course may contribute to increased risk of several chronic diseases. The relationship between telomere length and aerobic and muscular fitness is not well characterized. We examined whether there are cross-sectional associations of mean relative leukocyte telomere length (LTL) with objective measures of aerobic fitness, muscle strength, and muscle endurance, using data on 31-year-old participants of the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966 (n = 4,952-5,205, varying by exposure-outcome analysis). Aerobic fitness was assessed by means of heart rate measurement following a standardized submaximal step test; muscular fitness was assessed by means of a maximal isometric handgrip strength test and a test of lower-back trunk muscle endurance. Longer LTL was associated with higher aerobic fitness and better trunk muscle endurance in models including adjustment for age, sex, body mass index, socioeconomic position, diet, smoking, alcohol consumption, physical activity level, and C-reactive protein. In a sex-stratified analysis, LTL was not associated with handgrip strength in either men or women. LTL may relate to aspects of physical fitness in young adulthood, but replication of these findings is required, along with further studies to help assess directions and causality in these associations.

Type: Article
Title: Associations of Leukocyte Telomere Length With Aerobic and Muscular Fitness in Young Adults
Location: United States
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1093/aje/kww123
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1093/aje/kww123
Language: English
Additional information: Copyright © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons. org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Keywords: aerobic fitness, biological aging, handgrip strength, Northern Finland Birth Cohorts, telomere length
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Cardiovascular Science
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Cardiovascular Science > Population Science and Experimental Medicine
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Cardiovascular Science > Population Science and Experimental Medicine > MRC Unit for Lifelong Hlth and Ageing
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > UCL GOS Institute of Child Health
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > UCL GOS Institute of Child Health > Genetics and Genomic Medicine Dept
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1550289
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