Abstract
Cumulative evidence has shown the adverse effects of HIV-related death and illness on children's psychosocial well-being. However, few studies have examined whether these factors can "get under the skin" to affect children's health. This study, therefore, examined the effects of HIV-related parental death on telomere length, a biomarker of cellular aging. This study further explored whether the results on telomere length were consistent with results based on self-report health outcomes, namely depressive symptoms. A total of 117 children (10-17 years of age) affected by parental HIV (27 children living with HIV-positive parents and 90 AIDS orphans) from Henan China provided blood samples for telomere length assay and completed a survey for depressive symptoms and demographic information. Results showed that AIDS orphans had a shorter telomere length than children living with HIV-positive parents and that such differences in telomere length were more evident than were differences in depressive symptoms. There were no significant differences in telomere length or depressive symptoms between children who lost one parent and those who lost both. The results suggest that HIV-related parental death may contribute to accelerated telomere shortening and highlight that telomere length may be a novel and useful biomarker for health needs assessment in pediatric AIDS care. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).
Accepted Version
Published Version
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