Cited by 1,363Telomeres, Telomerase, and SenescenceGenetics, Aging, and Longevity in Model OrganismsSmoking Behavior and Cessation

Obesity, cigarette smoking, and telomere length in women

Valdes, AM, Andrew, T, Gardner, JP, Kimura, M, Oelsner, E, Cherkas, LF, Aviv, A, Spector, TD·2005·The Lancet

Abstract

Obesity and smoking are important risk factors for many age-related diseases. Both are states of heightened oxidative stress, which increases the rate of telomere erosion per replication, and inflammation, which enhances white blood cell turnover. Together, these processes might accelerate telomere erosion with age. We therefore tested the hypothesis that increased body mass and smoking are associated with shortened telomere length in white blood cells. We investigated 1122 white women aged 18-76 years and found that telomere length decreased steadily with age at a mean rate of 27 bp per year. Telomeres of obese women were 240 bp shorter than those of lean women (p=0.026). A dose-dependent relation with smoking was recorded (p=0.017), and each pack-year smoked was equivalent to an additional 5 bp of telomere length lost (18%) compared with the rate in the overall cohort. Our results emphasise the pro-ageing effects of obesity and cigarette smoking.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/s0140-6736(05)66630-5

Cites

6 of 6 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

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?

  • Because LTL is also affected by other risk factors for CAD such as oxidative stress, it has been unclear whether the association of shorter LTL with CAD is primary or secondary.

    “Because LTL is also affected by other risk factors for CAD such as oxidative stress27–29, it has been unclear whether the association of shorter LTL with CAD is primary or secondary.”

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Valdes, A., Andrew, T., Gardner, J., Kimura, M., Oelsner, E., Cherkas, L., Aviv, A., & Spector, T.
Affiliations
  • St Thomas' Hospital (GB)
  • University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (US)
Venue
The Lancet
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2005-08
Volume
366
Issue
9486
Pages
662-664
ISSN
  • 0099-5355 (ISSN-L)
  • 0140-6736
OpenAlex
W2147991226
Cited by
1,363
References
6
Citations by year
2026: 19 · 2025: 25 · 2024: 46 · 2023: 47 · 2022: 59 · 2021: 63 · 2020: 65 · 2019: 81 · 2018: 62 · 2017: 80 · 2016: 89 · 2015: 75 · 2014: 98 · 2013: 80 · 2012: 100
FWCI
29.16
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • The Lancet (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Rutgers University Community Repository (Rutgers University) (submittedVersion)
  • Research Portal (King's College London) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey
  • Grant Healthcare Foundation
  • Wellcome Trust
  • Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials
  • National Institutes of Health
  • National Institute on Aging (R01AG021593, AG021593)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Telomeres, Telomerase, and Senescence
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Aging › Genetics, Aging, and Longevity in Model Organisms
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Smoking Behavior and Cessation
Keywords
obesity, cigarette smoking, telomere length, leukocytes, oxidative stress, inflammation, aging, pack-years, women, body mass index
MeSH terms
Adolescent, Adult, Aged, Aging, Female, Humans, Middle Aged, Obesity, Risk Factors, Smoking, Telomere

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