Analyzing Factors Associated with Telomere Attrition among Black Americans: The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey
By: Tyrine Bailey, Rizelle Jugarap, Rebecca Mendez, Adriana Lopez
Department: Biology
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Cathy Samayoa
Black Americans have the worst mortality rates in the United States and suffer from health inequities across their lifespan. These outcomes may be due to telomere shortening, which contributes to premature aging. In fact, cellular aging due to telomere shortening plays an important role in the development of chronic diseases and is therefore implicated in eliciting health disparities among Black Americans. However, the societal factors that impact telomere length among Black adults are not well understood. The objective of this study is to examine factors associated with telomere length among Black adults in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) study. This study used NHANES data from 1999-2000, which included measures of relative leukocyte telomere length (rLTL). We performed correlation analyses to determine the relationship between rLTL, measures of social disadvantages, and relevant blood markers among Black adult participants. Multilinear regression models were used to further examine the combined relationships between social factors and relative leukocyte telomere length (rLTL). In the preliminary analysis, we examined NHANES data for a total of 491 Black participants and determined an rLTL median of 1.01 +/- 0.36 and a mean of 1.06. Additionally, we observed telomere length in 3105 participants across all ethnicities listed in the 1999-2000 NHANES cohort. Among all 3105 participants, we determined an rLTL median of 0.962 +/- 0.34 and a mean of 0.998. We further investigated the relationships between social disadvantages and rLTL. For example, we expected that income and educational level were positively associated with rLTL. Moreover, we hypothesized that higher levels of the inflammatory biomarker, CRP, which is associated with chronic stress, and increased levels of lead in blood, which is associated with poor housing were inversely associated with rLTL. Understanding the relationships between social disadvantages and telomere length among Black adults will reveal multi-level anti-racist points of intervention to reduce health disparities that disproportionately affect Black Americans.