Division of Intramural Research, National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
Department of Epidemiology, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Sep 4;19(17):11069. doi: 10.3390/ijerph191711069.
Telomere length is affected by lifestyle and environmental factors and varies between racial and ethnic groups; however, studies are limited, with mixed findings. This study examined the effects of tobacco use and smoke exposure on mean telomere length to identify critical age periods by race/ethnicity. We used time-varying effect modeling on the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey for continuous years 1999-2002 to observe the effects of active tobacco use and environmental tobacco smoke-measured through serum cotinine-and mean telomere length for adults 19 to 85 and older (N = 7826). Models were run for Mexican American, other Hispanic, non-Hispanic White, non-Hispanic Black, and other/multi-race categories to allow for time-varying group differences, and controlled for biological sex, socioeconomic status, education, and ever-smoker status. Serum cotinine was found to have an increasing effect on telomere length from age 37 to approximately age 74 among Mexican Americans. Among other/multi-race individuals serum cotinine was found to have a decreasing effect at approximately age 42, and among Blacks, it had an overall decreasing effect from age 61 to 78. Findings reveal a further need to focus additional support and resources to intervene regarding disparate health effects from tobacco use and environmental smoke exposure for already vulnerable groups at particular ages.
端粒长度受生活方式和环境因素的影响，在不同种族和族裔群体之间存在差异；然而，相关研究有限，且结果存在差异。本研究通过考察吸烟和被动吸烟对端粒平均长度的影响，来确定按种族/族裔划分的关键年龄阶段。我们利用 1999-2002 年国家健康和营养调查的时间变化效应模型，观察了主动吸烟和环境烟草烟雾（通过血清可替宁测量）对 19 至 85 岁及以上成年人（n=7826）端粒平均长度的影响。为了允许时间变化的组间差异，对墨西哥裔美国人、其他西班牙裔、非西班牙裔白人、非西班牙裔黑人以及其他/多种族群体进行了模型运行，并控制了生物学性别、社会经济地位、教育程度和曾经吸烟者状况。结果发现，在墨西哥裔美国人中，血清可替宁从 37 岁到 74 岁左右对端粒长度有逐渐增加的影响。在其他/多种族个体中，血清可替宁在大约 42 岁时有逐渐降低的影响，而在黑人中，从 61 岁到 78 岁左右，端粒长度则呈现整体下降的趋势。这些发现表明，需要进一步关注特定年龄组中已经脆弱的群体因吸烟和环境烟雾暴露而产生的不同健康影响，并提供额外的支持和资源进行干预。
