Life course adiposity and biological ageing: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

BackgroundExcess adiposity might promote chronic disease by accelerating biological ageing. We investigated the association between adiposity and leucocyte telomere length, a marker for biological ageing, through an assessment of current adiposity, adiposity at early adulthood, and life course overweight trajectories. MethodsWe included 7008 participants from the 1999–2002 US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Assessment of adiposity at examination included measurements of body-mass index (BMI), waist circumference, and percent body fat. BMI at age 25 years was retrospectively calculated on the basis of self-reported weight and height. Relative leucocyte telomere length was quantified by polymerase chain reaction. Multivariable linear regression was used to examine the difference in telomere length across current adiposity measures, BMI at age 25, and overweight trajectories between the two timepoints. Models took into account age, sex, race and ethnicity, education, smoking status, alcohol intake, and vigorous physical activity. FindingsA 0·2% decrease in telomere length (95% CI −0·3 to −0·07%) was observed for every unit increase in BMI, whereas a unit increase in waist circumference and percent body fat contributed to a decrease in telomere length (0·09% [95% CI −0·10 to −0·03] and 0·01 [–0·03 to −0·005], respectively). Associations were similar on binning adiposity into categories, and across different quintiles of leucocyte telomere length. Higher BMI and obesity at age 25 contributed to lower telomere length at age 30–40. Telomere length decreased among those who were overweight at age 25 but not overweight at age 30–40, and increased among those who were not overweight at age 50–60, compared with those who were not overweight at age 25 and at examination. InterpretationExcess adiposity consistently corresponds to shorter telomere length. Our findings call for intervention studies to further explore any role of weight management in reducing ageing-related disease burden in the population. FundingRH is funded by the UK Medical Research Council (MC_UU_12019/1).