Does physical activity moderate the association between shorter leukocyte telomere length and incident coronary heart disease? Data from 54,180 UK Biobank participants

The objective was to assess the moderation effect of accelerometer-based physical activity (aPA) on the association between shorter leukocyte telomere length (LTL) relatively in the population sample and incident CHD. Data were from the UK Biobank participants with well-calibrated accelerometer data for at least 6.5  days (n = 54,180). Relative mean LTL at baseline (5–6 years prior to aPA assessment) was measured in T/S ratio, using a multiplex quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) technology, by comparing the amount of the telomere amplification product (T) to that of a single-copy gene (S). aPA measure s included total number of events (at least 10-s continued physical activity >  32 milligravities [mg]), total volume, mean duration, mean intensity, and peak intensity of all events. LTL, aPA measures, and their interactions were associated with incident CHD (mean follow-up 6.8 years) using Cox proportional hazards models adjusting for covariates. Longer LTL (relative to t he sample distribution) was associated with reduced incidence of CHD (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR] = 0.94 per standard deviation [SD] increase in LTL, [95% CI, 0.90 to 0.99],P = .010). Incidence of CHD was reduced by higher total volume of aPA (aHR = 0.82 per SD increase in LTL, [95% CI, 0.71 to 0.95],P = .010) but increased by higher total number of events (aHR = 1.11 per SD increase in LTL, [95% CI, 1.02 to 1.21],P = .020) after controlling for other aPA mea...
Source: AGE - Category: Geriatrics Source Type: research