Department of Public Health, University of Texas at San Antonio, One UTSA Circle, San Antonio, TX 78249, USA.
Consequences of Trauma Working Group, the Center for Community-Based and Applied Health Research, University of Texas at San Antonio, One UTSA Circle, San Antonio, TX 78249, USA.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Feb 11;18(4):1743. doi: 10.3390/ijerph18041743.
A growing body of literature on military personnel and veterans' health suggests that prior military service may be associated with exposures that increase the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), which may differ by race/ethnicity. This study examined the hypothesis that differential telomere shortening, a measure of cellular aging, by race/ethnicity may explain prior findings of differential CVD risk in racial/ethnic groups with military service. Data from the first two continuous waves of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), administered from 1999-2002 were analyzed. Mean telomere length in base pairs was analyzed with multivariable adjusted linear regression with complex sample design, stratified by sex. The unadjusted mean telomere length was 225.8 base shorter for individuals with prior military service. The mean telomere length for men was 47.2 (95% CI: -92.9, -1.5; < 0.05) base pairs shorter for men with military service after adjustment for demographic, socioeconomic, and behavioral variables, but did not differ significantly in women with and without prior military service. The interaction between military service and race/ethnicity was not significant for men or women. The results suggest that military service may contribute to accelerated aging as a result of health damaging exposures, such as combat, injury, and environmental contaminants, though other unmeasured confounders could also potentially explain the results.
越来越多的关于军人和退伍军人健康的文献表明，先前的兵役经历可能与增加心血管疾病（CVD）风险的暴露有关，而这种风险可能因种族/民族而异。本研究检验了这样一个假设，即种族/民族之间端粒缩短的差异，一种细胞衰老的衡量标准，可能可以解释在有兵役经历的不同种族/民族群体中发现的不同 CVD 风险的差异。本研究分析了 1999-2002 年进行的国家健康和营养检查调查（NHANES）的前两个连续波的数据。使用多变量调整线性回归和复杂样本设计，按性别分层分析碱基对的平均端粒长度。未经调整的平均端粒长度在有兵役经历的个体中短 225.8 个碱基。调整了人口统计学、社会经济和行为变量后，男性的平均端粒长度比有兵役经历的男性短 47.2（95%CI：-92.9，-1.5；<0.05）个碱基，但在有和没有兵役经历的女性中没有显著差异。兵役与种族/民族之间的相互作用在男性或女性中均不显著。结果表明，兵役可能会因健康损害性暴露（如战斗、受伤和环境污染物）而导致加速衰老，尽管其他未测量的混杂因素也可能潜在地解释这些结果。
