Telomere length is longer in women with late maternal age

Erin Fagan, Fangui Sun, Harold Bae, Irma Elo, Stacy L. Andersen, Joseph Lee, Kaare Christensen, Bharat Thyagarajan, Paola Sebastiani, Thomas Perls, Lawrence S. Honig, Nicole Schupf, for the Long Life Family Study

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

30 Scopus citations

Abstract

Objective: Maternal age at birth of last child has been associated with maternal longevity. The aim of this study was to determine whether older women with a history of late maternal age at last childbirth had a longer leukocyte telomere length than those with maternal age at last childbirth of 29 years or less. Methods: A nested case control study was conducted using data from the Long Life Family Study. Three hundred eighty-seven women who gave birth to at least one child and lived to the top fifth percentile of their birth cohort, or died before the top fifth percentile of their birth cohort died, but were at least 70 years old, were studied. Logistic regression models using generalized estimating equations were used to determine the association between tertiles of telomere length and maternal age at last childbirth, adjusting for covariates. Results: Age at birth of the last child was significantly associated with leukocyte telomere length. Compared with women who gave birth to their last child before the age of 29, women who were past the age of 33 when they had their last child were two to three times more likely to have leukocyte telomere length in the second and third tertiles than in the first tertile. Conclusions: These findings show an association between longer leukocyte telomere length and a later maternal age at birth of last child, suggesting that extended maternal age at last childbirth may be a marker for longevity.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)497-501
Number of pages5
JournalMenopause
Volume24
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - 2017

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 by The North American Menopause Society.

Keywords

  • Aging
  • Familial longevity
  • Maternal age
  • Menopause
  • Telomere length

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