Malouff John M, Schutte Nicola S
a Department of Psychology , University of New England , Armidale , Australia.
Anxiety Stress Coping. 2017 May;30(3):264-272. doi: 10.1080/10615806.2016.1261286. Epub 2016 Nov 28.
Telomeres are protective caps at the ends of chromosomes, and shorter telomeres are associated with poor physical health. The present study set out to consolidate the varying effect sizes found so far in studies of anxiety and telomere length.
A meta-analytic investigation of the relationship between anxiety and telomere length used information from 17 different samples comprising a total of 19,424 participants.
The results showed a small but significant association, r = -.06, between higher anxiety and shorter telomeres. Studies comparing individuals diagnosed with an anxiety disorder with other individuals had a significant effect size, and studies that did not use this comparison threshold did not have a significant effect size.
Anxiety is associated with an important biomarker related to health. Future experimental studies that examine the impact of interventions intended to reduce anxiety in conjunction with measurement of telomere length can further clarify the impact of anxiety on telomere length.
端粒是染色体末端的保护帽，较短的端粒与身体健康不佳有关。本研究旨在汇总目前在焦虑与端粒长度研究中发现的不同效应量。
一项关于焦虑与端粒长度关系的荟萃分析调查，使用了来自17个不同样本的信息，共计19424名参与者。
结果显示，较高的焦虑水平与较短的端粒之间存在微小但显著的关联，r = -0.06。比较被诊断患有焦虑症的个体与其他个体的研究有显著的效应量，而未使用此比较阈值的研究则没有显著的效应量。
焦虑与一个与健康相关的重要生物标志物有关。未来通过实验研究来检验旨在减轻焦虑的干预措施的影响，并同时测量端粒长度，能够进一步阐明焦虑对端粒长度的影响。
