Food Security and Leukocyte Telomere Length in Adult Americans

Telomeres » Institutional Study » Food Security and Leukocyte Telomere Length in Adult Americans

October 2, 2017 | Amy | Leave a comment

Peer-Reviewed Scientific Journal:
Oxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity

Size of study:
10,888 adults

Summary
In this large study of 10,888 adults from the 1999-2002 US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) cohort, average telomere length (ATL) was found to be longer in those participants that reported high food security versus those with lower food security. When the data was segmented by age ranges, those with high versus marginal, low and very low food security had ATLs of 1.32 versus 1.20 for the age group 25-35 years and 1.26 versus 1.11 for the 35-45 years. These findings led the researchers to conclude that a telomere length shortening may be one of the factors that mediate the long-established relationship between poor food security in young adulthood and long-term poor health outcomes.

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