Shorter Telomeres Among Individuals With Physical Disability: The Moderating Role of Perceived Stress

Yael Lahav, Sharon Avidor, David Levy, Avi Ohry, Gabi Zeilig, Meir Lahav, Hava Golander, Anat-Chacham Guber, Orit Uziel and Ruth Defrin

The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, 2022, vol. 77, issue 8, 1384-1393

Abstract: ObjectivesEvidence suggests that individuals with physical disability may suffer from psychological distress and accelerated cellular aging, manifested by shortened telomere length (TL), compared with healthy individuals. Studies indicate that high levels of perceived stress and depression may increase the physiological susceptibility and, thus, may contribute to a short TL. However, the moderating role of perceived stress and depression within the relationship between physical disability and TL remains unknown.MethodThe participants consisted of 119 male subjects (mean age 54.36 years, range 35−70). Of them, 30 were able-bodied and 89 had a physical disability: 34 were due to poliomyelitis (polio) and 55 were due to spinal cord injury. Blood samples for TL analysis were collected; the participants completed questionnaires and underwent disability evaluation.ResultsParticipants with disability had a shorter TL as well as elevated levels of perceived stress and depression compared with able-bodied controls. Both the perceived stress and depression were correlated with a shorter TL. Nonetheless, perceived stress, rather than depression, moderated the relationship between disability and TL; among participants with higher perceived stress levels, in particular, individuals with physical disability had a shorter TL than the able-bodied controls.DiscussionThe present findings suggest that individuals with physical disability and who exhibit high levels of perceived stress may be particularly vulnerable for accelerated cellular aging, suggesting that perceived stress can be used as a valuable target for intervention.

Keywords: Depression; Perceived stress; Poliomyelitis; Spinal cord injury; Telomere length (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/geronb/gbab200 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:geronb:v:77:y:2022:i:8:p:1384-1393.

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://academic.oup.com/journals

Access Statistics for this article

The Journals of Gerontology: Series B is currently edited by Psychological Sciences - S. Duke Han, PhD and Social Sciences - Jessica A Kelley, PhD, FGSA

More articles in The Journals of Gerontology: Series B from The Gerontological Society of America Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().