Open AccessMarital Quality and Salivary Telomere Length Among Older Men and Women in the United States
Author(s) -
Yanliang Yu,
Hui Liu
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of aging and health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.041
H-Index - 75
eISSN - 1552-6887
pISSN - 0898-2643
DOI - 10.1177/0898264320980250
Subject(s) - telomere , health and retirement study , marital status , psychology , quality (philosophy) , marital relationship , demography , gerontology , medicine , developmental psychology , biology , genetics , population , sociology , dna , philosophy , epistemology
Objective: The link between marital quality and cellular aging remains underexplored. This study examined how both positive and negative marital quality were associated with salivary telomere length among partnered adults in the United States over the age of 50°years. Methods: Data were from the 2008 Health and Retirement Study ( N = 3203). Ordinary least squares regression was used to estimate the link between marital quality and telomere length. Results: While neither positive nor negative marital quality was significantly associated with telomere length among older women, positive and negative marital quality had an interacting effect on telomere length among men. Specifically, when negative marital quality was low, higher positive marital quality was associated with shorter telomere length, whereas when negative marital quality was high, higher positive marital quality was associated with longer telomere length. Discussion: The findings speak to the complex nature of intimate partnerships and the implications of these partnerships for cellular aging processes.