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Lifetime socioeconomic status and early life microbial environments predict adult blood telomere length in the Philippines
Author(s) -
Tennyson Robert L.,
Gettler Lee T.,
Kuzawa Christopher W.,
Hayes M. Geoffrey,
Agustin Sonny S.,
Eisenberg Dan T.A.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
american journal of human biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.559
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1520-6300
pISSN - 1042-0533
DOI - 10.1002/ajhb.23145
Subject(s) - psychosocial , socioeconomic status , stressor , telomere , demography , allostatic load , gerontology , psychology , medicine , environmental health , biology , clinical psychology , population , genetics , psychiatry , dna , sociology
Objectives Psychosocial stress is postulated to hasten senescence in part by accelerating the shortening of telomere length (TL). One pathway through which this may happen is via increasing inflammation and innate immune system activation—a pathway which recent studies suggest acts more strongly for those who grew up in low microbial environments. Thus, we hypothesized that: (1) Psychosocial stress will be inversely associated with TL, (2) early life microbial environments will predict TL, and (3) microbial environments will moderate the association between psychosocial stress and TL. Methods We utilized data from the Cebu Longitudinal Health and Nutrition Survey based in the Philippines ( N = 1410). We determined early life microbial environments by season of birth and exposure to animal feces. Psychosocial stress measures included perceived stress in adulthood, lifetime socioeconomic status (SES), and parental instability in childhood. TL was measured in blood from young adults by qPCR. Results Contrary to predictions, we found that higher SES was associated with shorter TL and no association of TL with the other stress variables. Individuals born in the higher microbial exposure season had shorter TL, but early life microbial environments did not moderate the association between psychosocial stress and TL. Conclusions The unexpected inverse association between SES and TL suggests that higher SES, while indexing lower psychosocial stress, may impact TL more strongly through nonstress factors in the Philippines, such as unhealthy behavior. The inverse association between microbial environments and TL is consistent with other evidence connecting early life infections to decreased life expectancies.