Aging Clin Exp Res. 2023 Nov 14. doi: 10.1007/s40520-023-02607-4. Online ahead of print.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Due to the ongoing Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, interest has arisen to realize the relationship between telomere length (TL) and influenza and pneumonia mortality.
AIM: Our study attempted to investigate this correlation by analyzing information gathered from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 1999-2002.
METHODS: A total of 7229 participants were involved in the conducted research. We utilized Cox proportional risk model analysis to determine the hazard ratio (HR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) for TL and influenza and pneumonia mortality.
RESULTS: During the average follow-up time of 204.10 ± 51.26 months, 33 (0.45%) participants died from influenza and pneumonia. After adjusting for multiple variables, shorter TL was associated with higher influenza-pneumonia mortality. In subgroup analyses stratified by sex, men exhibited stronger associations with influenza-pneumonia mortality than women (Model 1: HRmale: 0.014 vs HRfemale: 0.054; Model 2: HRmale: 0.082 vs HRfemale: 0.890; Model 3: HRmale: 0.072 vs HRfemale: 0.776). For subgroup analyses by visceral adiposity index (VAI), all statistically significant (P < 0.05) models displayed an inverse relationship between TL and influenza and pneumonia mortality.
CONCLUSIONS: Our research provides further proof for the connection between shorter telomeres and higher influenza-pneumonia mortality. Larger prospective researches are essential to support our results and explain the underlying mechanisms.
PMID:37962763 | DOI:10.1007/s40520-023-02607-4
