The DOI matches its Crossref record; 32 of the 33 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Pessimism correlates with leukocyte telomere shortness and elevated interleukin-6 in post-menopausal women
Open accessAbstract
The combination of less positive and more negative expectations for the future (i.e., lower optimism and higher pessimism) increases risk for disease and early mortality. We tested the possibility that expectancies might influence health outcomes by altering the rate of biological aging, specifically of the immune system (immunosenescence). However, no studies to date have examined associations between optimism or pessimism and indicators of immunosenescence such as leukocyte telomere length (TL) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) levels. We investigated whether dispositional tendencies towards optimism and pessimism were associated with TL and IL-6 in a sample of 36 healthy post-menopausal women. Multiple regression analyses where optimism and pessimism were entered simultaneously, and chronological age and caregiver status were controlled, indicated that pessimism was independently associated with shorter TL (beta=-.68, p=.001) and higher IL-6 concentrations (beta=.50, p=.02). In contrast, optimism was not independently associated with either measure of immunosenescence. These findings suggest that dispositional pessimism may increase IL-6 and accelerate rate of telomere shortening. Mechanistic causal relationships between these parameters need to be investigated.
Overview
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
In the citing paper
“Suicidal depression is characterized by hopelessness and negative expectations for the future, which have previously been associated with elevated inflammation.[20,21]”
From SUICIDAL IDEATION IS ASSOCIATED WITH ELEVATED INFLAMMATION IN PATIENTS WITH MAJOR DEPRESSIVE DISORDER: Research Article: Suicidal Ideation and Inflammation (2013) · cites this paper as [21]
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Citations
Cites
A Global Measure of Perceived Stress
Cohen, S., Kamarck, T., & Mermelstein, R. (1983) · Journal of Health and Social Behavior · doi:10.2307/2136404 · Cited by 32,807
Validation of the Insomnia Severity Index as an outcome measure for insomnia research
Bastien, C. (2001) · Sleep Medicine · doi:10.1016/s1389-9457(00)00065-4 · Cited by 8,067
Scheier, M. F., Carver, C. S., & Bridges, M. W. (1994) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037//0022-3514.67.6.1063 · Cited by 7,456
Optimism, coping, and health: Assessment and implications of generalized outcome expectancies.
Scheier, M. F., & Carver, C. S. (1985) · Health Psychology · doi:10.1037/0278-6133.4.3.219 · Cited by 6,690 · cited 1×
“…and pessimism measures generally remain stable across time (Giltay et al., 2006; Scheier et al., 1994), and the combination of low optimism and/or high pessimism is associated with more negative mood, less positive mood and poorer coping with stress (Carver et al., 1993; Scheier and Carver, 1985).”
BackgroundInflamm‐aging: An Evolutionary Perspective on Immunosenescence
FRANCESCHI, C., BONAFÈ, M., VALENSIN, S., OLIVIERI, F., DE LUCA, M., OTTAVIANI, E., & DE BENEDICTIS, G. (2000) · Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1111/j.1749-6632.2000.tb06651.x · Cited by 5,358
Telomere measurement by quantitative PCR
Cawthon, R. (2002) · Nucleic Acids Research · doi:10.1093/nar/30.10.e47 · Cited by 3,550
Accelerated telomere shortening in response to life stress
Epel, E. S., Blackburn, E. H., Lin, J., Dhabhar, F. S., Adler, N. E., Morrow, J. D., & Cawthon, R. M. (2004) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.0407162101 · Cited by 3,002
Switching and Signaling at the Telomere
Blackburn, E. H. (2001) · Cell · doi:10.1016/s0092-8674(01)00492-5 · Cited by 2,139
Association between telomere length in blood and mortality in people aged 60 years or older
Cawthon, R. M., Smith, K. R., O'Brien, E., Sivatchenko, A., & Kerber, R. A. (2003) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(03)12384-7 · Cited by 1,761
Telomere reduction in human colorectal carcinoma and with ageing
Hastie, N. D., Dempster, M., Dunlop, M. G., Thompson, A. M., Green, D. K., & Allshire, R. C. (1990) · Nature · doi:10.1038/346866a0 · Cited by 1,650
John, O. P., Donahue, E. M., & Kentle, R. L. (1991) · PsycTESTS Dataset · doi:10.1037/t07550-000 · Cited by 1,370
Chronic stress and age-related increases in the proinflammatory cytokine IL-6.
Kiecolt-Glaser, J. K., Preacher, K. J., MacCallum, R. C., Atkinson, C., Malarkey, W. B., & Glaser, R. (2003) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.1531903100 · Cited by 1,267 · cited 1×
“Given observed associations between both acute and chronic psychological stress and raised IL-6 levels (Kiecolt-Glaser et al., 2003; Steptoe et al., 2001), we propose that exposure to psychological stressors in pessimists could contribute to chronic low-level increases in circulating…”
BackgroundCarver, C. S., Pozo, C., Harris, S. D., Noriega, V., Scheier, M. F., Robinson, D. S., Ketcham, A. S., Moffat, F. L., & Clark, K. C. (1993) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.65.2.375 · Cited by 1,228
A survey for assessing physical activity among older adults
DiPietro, L., Caspersen, C. J., Ostfeld, A. M., & NADEL, E. R. (1993) · Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise · doi:10.1249/00005768-199305000-00016 · Cited by 708
Neural mechanisms mediating optimism bias
Sharot, T., Riccardi, A. M., Raio, C. M., & Phelps, E. A. (2007) · Nature · doi:10.1038/nature06280 · Cited by 659
Cardiovascular Disease, Interleukin-6, and Risk of Mortality in Older Women
Volpato, S., Guralnik, J. M., Ferrucci, L., Balfour, J. L., Chaves, P. H. M., Fried, L. P., & Harris, T. B. (2001) · Circulation · doi:10.1161/01.cir.103.7.947 · Cited by 440
Damjanovic, A. K., Yang, Y., Glaser, R., Kiecolt‐Glaser, J. K., Nguyen, H., Laskowski, B. F., Zou, Y., Beversdorf, D. Q., & Weng, N. (2007) · The Journal of Immunology · doi:10.4049/jimmunol.179.6.4249 · Cited by 413
Acute mental stress elicits delayed increases in circulating inflammatory cytokine levels
STEPTOE, A., WILLEMSEN, G., OWEN, N., FLOWER, L., & MOHAMED-ALI, V. (2001) · Clinical Science · doi:10.1042/cs1010185 · Cited by 354
Optimism, pessimism and mental health: A twin/adoption analysis
Plomin, R., Scheier, M. F., Bergeman, C. S., Pedersen, N. L., Nesselroade, J. R., & McClearn, G. E. (1992) · Personality and Individual Differences · doi:10.1016/0191-8869(92)90009-e · Cited by 283
Telomere Length and Mortality: A Study of Leukocytes in Elderly Danish Twins
Kimura, M., Hjelmborg, J., Gardner, J. P., Bathum, L., Brimacombe, M. B., Lu, X., Christiansen, L., Vaupel, J. W., Aviv, A., & Christensen, K. (2008) · American Journal of Epidemiology · doi:10.1093/aje/kwm380 · Cited by 277
Iwama, H., Ohyashiki, K., Ohyashiki, J. H., Hayashi, S., Yahata, N., Ando, K., Toyama, K., Hoshika, A., Takasaki, M., Mori, M., et al. (1998) · Human Genetics · doi:10.1007/s004390050711 · Cited by 265
Dispositional Optimism and the Risk of Cardiovascular Death
Giltay, E. J., Kamphuis, M. H., Kalmijn, S., Zitman, F. G., & Kromhout, D. (2006) · Archives of Internal Medicine · doi:10.1001/.431 · Cited by 240
Optimism and immunity: Do positive thoughts always lead to positive effects?
Segerstrom, S. C. (2004) · Brain Behavior and Immunity · doi:10.1016/j.bbi.2004.08.003 · Cited by 222
Allison, P. J., Guichard, C., Fung, K., & Gilain, L. (2003) · Journal of Clinical Oncology · doi:10.1200/jco.2003.10.092 · Cited by 216
Carrero, J. J., Stenvinkel, P., Fellström, B., Qureshi, A. R., Lamb, K. J., Heimbürger, O., Barany, P. F., Radhakrishnan, K., Lindholm, B., Soveri, I., et al. (2007) · Journal of Internal Medicine · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2796.2007.01890.x · Cited by 185
Matthews, K. A., Räikkönen, K., Sutton-Tyrrell, K., & Kuller, L. H. (2004) · Psychosomatic Medicine · doi:10.1097/01.psy.0000139999.99756.a5 · Cited by 179
Pessimism, age, and cancer mortality.
Schulz, R., Bookwala, J., Knapp, J. E., Scheier, M., & Williamson, G. M. (1996) · Psychology and Aging · doi:10.1037/0882-7974.11.2.304 · Cited by 175 · cited 1×
“These results are consistent with previous studies that have distinguished between optimism and pessimism, in which linear associations were reported between pessimism, but not optimism, and objective indicators of health (Milam et al., 2004; Schulz et al., 1996).”
ResultWu, K., Higashi, N., Hansen, E. R., Lund, M., Bang, K., & Thestrup‐Pedersen, K. (2000) · The Journal of Immunology · doi:10.4049/jimmunol.165.8.4742 · Cited by 95
The roles of dispositional optimism and pessimism in hiv disease progression
Milam, J. E., Richardson, J. L., Marks, G. N., Kemper, C. A., & McCutchan, A. (2004) · Psychology and Health · doi:10.1080/08870440310001652696 · Cited by 93
From Hayflick to Walford: the role of T cell replicative senescence in human aging
Effros, R. B. (2004) · Experimental Gerontology · doi:10.1016/j.exger.2004.03.004 · Cited by 61
Optimism, distress, and immunologic status in HIV-infected gay men following hurricane andrew
Cruess, S. E., Antoni, M. H., Kilbourn, K. M., Ironson, G. H., Klimas, N. G., FLETCHER, M. A., Baum, A., & Schneiderman, N. (2000) · International Journal of Behavioral Medicine · doi:10.1207/s15327558ijbm0702_5 · Cited by 31
Dispositional Optimism and the Risk of Cardiovascular Death
Giltay, E. J., Kamphuis, M. H., Kalmijn, S., Zitman, F. G., & Kromhout, D. (2006) · Archives of Internal Medicine · doi:10.1001/archinte.166.4.431 · Cited by 9
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Boehm, J. K., & Kubzansky, L. D. (2012) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/a0027448 · Cited by 909
Psychological and metabolic stress: A recipe for accelerated cellular aging?
Epel, E. S. (2009) · HORMONES · doi:10.14310/horm.2002.1217 · Cited by 424
Black sheep get the blues: a psychobiological model of social rejection and depression
Slavich, G. M., O’Donovan, A., Epel, E. S., & Kemeny, M. E. (2010) · Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2010.01.003 · Cited by 362
Self-citationTyrka, A. R., Price, L. H., Kao, H.-T., Porton, B., Marsella, S. A., & Carpenter, L. L. (2010) · Biological Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2009.08.014 · Cited by 342
Telomeres and early-life stress: an overview
Price, L. H., Kao, H.-T., Burgers, D. E., Carpenter, L. L., & Tyrka, A. R. (2013) · Biological Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2012.06.025 · Cited by 339
Metadata
- Authors
- O’Donovan, A., Lin, J., Dhabhar, F. S., Wolkowitz, O., Tillie, J. M., Blackburn, E., & Epel, E.
- Affiliations
- University College Dublin (IE)
- University of California, San Francisco (US)
- Stanford University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Epel, E.
- Venue
- Brain Behavior and Immunity
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2009-05
- Volume
- 23
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 446-449
- ISSN
- 0889-1591 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC2719778
- OpenAlex
- W2025357040
- Cited by
- 161
- References
- 33
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 9 · 2019: 8 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 8 · 2016: 11 · 2015: 18 · 2014: 11 · 2013: 15 · 2012: 15
- FWCI
- 13.80
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Brain Behavior and Immunity (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute of Mental Health (K08MH064110)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Optimism, Hope, and Well-being
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Cell Biology › Telomeres, Telomerase, and Senescence
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Aging and Gerontology Research
- Keywords
- pessimism, optimism, leukocyte telomere length, telomere shortening, interleukin-6, immunosenescence, biological aging, postmenopausal women, health expectancy, caregiver status
- MeSH terms
- Affect, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Aging, Attitude, Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay, Female, Humans, Leukocytes, Middle Aged, Personality, Personality Inventory, Surveys and Questionnaires, Regression Analysis, Stress, Psychological, Health Behavior, Interleukin-6, Telomere, Caregivers, Patient Selection, Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
