Mental Health
Longitudinal association between short leukocyte telomere length and mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic Dongkyu Lee* Dongkyu Lee Sun Jae
Objective:
Shortened telomere length is a biomarker of cellular aging. This study evaluated the association between leukocyte telomere length and mental health outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Method:
A total of 215 participants with leukocyte telomere length measurements at the baseline survey (2013-2018) were sampled from a community cohort. The participants were followed-up using consecutive online mental health surveys (Wave 1: March 2020 to Wave 5: November 2022) during the COVID-19 pandemic at similar intervals. Telomere lengths were divided into tertiles as short (T1), medium (T2), and long (T3, reference) lengths. Depression (Patient Health Questionnaire-9, PHQ-9), anxiety (Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7, GAD-7), post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSD Checklist for DSM-5, PCL-5), loneliness (UCLA Loneliness Scale, ULS-6), and resilience (10-item Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, CD-RISC-10) were measured as mental health outcomes with continuous scales. Depression (PHQ-9≥10) and anxiety (GAD-7≥10) were also measured as binary variables. Significance levels were set at p<0.01 regarding five mental health outcomes. Generalized estimating equations were used to estimate the association between telomere length at baseline and mental health outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Result:
Short telomeric length was associated with increased PHQ-9 (β: 1.53, 99% CI: 0.23-2.83), GAD-7 (β: 1.06, 99% CI: 0.06-2.06), and PCL-5 (β: 3.11, 99% CI: 0.12-6.10) scores. Binary depression (OR: 3.27, 99% CI: 1.31-8.19) and anxiety (OR: 6.23, 99% CI: 1.25-31.09) status was also associated with short telomeric length, showing dose-response relationship (p-for-trend<0.001, respectively).
Conclusion:
Short telomeric length was associated with depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress symptoms. Cellular aging could increase vulnerability against mental health problems when social stress is given.