Department of Cardiology, University Medical Center Groningen, Hanzeplein 1, 9700 RB Groningen, The Netherlands.
Age Ageing. 2010 Mar;39(2):223-7. doi: 10.1093/ageing/afp256. Epub 2010 Jan 19.
psychological stress and depressive symptoms have been implicated with accelerated ageing and increased progression of diseases. Shorter telomere length indicates a more advanced biological age. It is unknown whether psychological well-being is associated with telomere length in patients with the somatic condition of chronic heart failure (CHF).
a cross-sectional analysis was used.
patients were admitted to the hospital with signs and symptoms of CHF.
the study aimed to assess the association between telomere length and psychological well-being in patients with CHF.
telomere length was determined by quantitative polymerase chain reaction in 890 patients with New York Heart Association functional class II to IV CHF. We evaluated the perceived mental health by the validated RAND-36 questionnaire. Depressive symptoms were assessed by the Centre for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale (CES-D), and the presence of type D personality was evaluated by the DS14.
a lower perceived mental health on the RAND-36 score was associated with shorter telomere length. Adjustment for age and gender did not change our findings (standardised beta, 0.11; P-value, 0.002). Telomere length was not associated with the CES-D or DS14 score.
decreased perceived mental health is associated with shorter leukocyte telomere length in patients with CHF. Future work should determine whether psychological stress accelerates biological ageing.
心理压力和抑郁症状与加速衰老和疾病进展有关。端粒较短表明生物学年龄更大。目前尚不清楚心理健康状况是否与慢性心力衰竭（CHF）患者的端粒长度有关。
使用横断面分析。
患者因 CHF 的体征和症状入院。
评估 CHF 患者端粒长度与心理幸福感之间的关系。
通过定量聚合酶链反应在 890 名纽约心脏协会功能 II 至 IV 级 CHF 患者中确定端粒长度。我们使用经过验证的 RAND-36 问卷评估感知心理健康状况。使用中心流行病学研究抑郁量表（CES-D）评估抑郁症状，并用 DS14 评估 D 型人格的存在。
RAND-36 评分中感知心理健康状况较差与端粒长度较短有关。调整年龄和性别后并未改变我们的发现（标准化β，0.11；P 值，0.002）。端粒长度与 CES-D 或 DS14 评分无关。
CHF 患者感知心理健康状况下降与白细胞端粒长度缩短有关。未来的研究应确定心理压力是否会加速生物学衰老。
