Healthy Lifestyle and Leukocyte Telomere Length in U.S. Women

<div><h3>Context</h3><p>Whether a healthy lifestyle may be associated with longer telomere length is largely unknown.</p> <h3>Objectives</h3><p>To examine healthy lifestyle practices, which are primary prevention measures against major age-related chronic diseases, in relation to leukocyte telomere length.</p> <h3>Design and Setting</h3><p>Cross-sectional analysis in the Nurses' Health Study (NHS).</p> <h3>Participants</h3><p>The population consisted of 5,862 women who participated in multiple prospective case-control studies within the NHS cohort. <em>Z</em> scores of leukocyte telomere length were derived within each case-control study. Based on prior work, we defined low-risk or healthy categories for five major modifiable factors assessed in 1988 or 1990: non-current smoking, maintaining a healthy body weight (body mass index in 18.5–24.9 kg/m²), engaging in regular moderate or vigorous physical activities (≥150 minutes/week), drinking alcohol in moderation (1 drink/week to <2 drinks/day), and eating a healthy diet (Alternate Healthy Eating Index score in top 50%). We calculated difference (%) of the <em>z</em> scores contrasting low-risk groups with reference groups to evaluate the association of interest.</p> <h3>Results</h3><p>Although none of the individual low-risk factors was significantly associated with larger leukocyte telomere length <em>z</em> scores, we observed a significant, positive relationship between the number of low-risk factors and the <em>z</em> scores. In comparison with women who had zero low-risk factors (1.9% of the total population) and were, therefore, considered the least healthy group, the leukocyte telomere length <em>z</em> scores were 16.4%, 22.1%, 28.7%, 22.6%, and 31.2% (P for trend = 0.015) higher for women who had 1 to 5 low-risk factors, respectively.</p> <h3>Conclusions</h3><p>Adherence to a healthy lifestyle, defined by major modifiable risk factors, was associated with longer telomere length in leukocytes.</p>