Shortened leucocyte telomere length is associated with increased daily air temperature: KORA F3 and KORA F4

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Climate change endangers human health and well-being in numerous ways. Increased air temperature is associated with increased age-related morbidity and mortality, but the mechanisms are not yet fully understood. We aimed to assess the short-term effects of air temperature on leucocyte telomere length, a clinical gauge for age-related disease risk, among an adult population. METHODS: This population-based study involved 5,864 participants from the KORA F3 (2004-2005) and F4 (2006-2008) cohort studies, conducted in Augsburg, Germany. Leucocyte telomere length was assessed by a quantitative PCR-based method. We estimated air temperature at each participant's residential address by a highly resolved spatio-temporal model using satellite, meteorological and land-use data. We conducted cohort-specific generalized additive models to explore the short-term effects of air temperature on leucocyte telomere length at lags 0-1, 2-6, 0-6, and 0-13 days separately and pooled the estimates by fixed-effects meta-analysis. We investigated potential effect modification by including interaction terms for individual characteristics, season and ozone. RESULTS: A 1°C increase in daily air temperature was associated with decreased leucocyte telomere lengths at lags 0-1, 2-6, 0-6 and 0-13 days [%changes (95% confidence interval): -0.28 (-0.42; -0.13), -0.28 (-0.45; -0.11), -0.42 (-0.62; -0.22), and -0.72 (-0.99; -0.46), respectively]. Only participants examined in the cold season showed a stronger effect of air temperature on leucocyte telomere length at lags 0-1 days, compared to participants examined in the warm season. There was no indication for other effect modification. CONCLUSIONS: This meta-analysis of two cohort studies showed that increased daily air temperature was associated with shortened leucocyte telomere length. Our findings add to the burgeoning evidence of how increases in air temperature can adversely impact human health. This abstract does not necessarily represent the policies of the US EPA. KEYWORDS: short-term effects, air temperature, telomere length