Depression, religiosity, and telomere length in the Study on Stress, Spirituality, and Health (SSSH)

Oluwaseyi O Isehunwa¹, Erica T Warner^{1

2}, Donna Spiegelman³, Ying Zhang¹, Julie R Palmer^{4

5}, Alka M Kanaya⁶, Shelley A Cole⁷, Shelley S Tworoger^{8

9}, Lester Orville Shields¹⁰, Yue Gu¹, Blake Victor Kent¹, Immaculata De Vivo^{11

12}, Alexandra E Shields¹

Affiliations

¹ MGH/Harvard Center on Genomics, Vulnerable Populations, and Health Disparities, Mongan Institute, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
² Clinical Translational Epidemiology Unit, Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
³ Department of Biostatistics and Global Health, Yale School of Public Health, New Haven, CT, USA; Center for Methods on Implementation and Prevention Science, Yale School of Public Health, New Haven, CT, USA; Department of Statistics and Data Science, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA.
⁴ Slone Epidemiology Center, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA.
⁵ Department of Epidemiology, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.
⁶ Division of General Internal Medicine, University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), San Francisco, CA, USA.
⁷ Population Health Program, Texas Biomedical Research Institute San Antonio, TX, USA.
⁸ Department of Cancer Epidemiology, Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute, Tampa, FL, USA.
⁹ Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Psychology, University of the West Indies - Mona, Kingston, Jamaica.
¹¹ Channing Division of Network Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
¹² Program in Genetic Epidemiology and Statistical Genetics, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.

PMID: 35747346
PMCID: PMC9211376
DOI: 10.1007/s11469-020-00455-1

Depression, religiosity, and telomere length in the Study on Stress, Spirituality, and Health (SSSH)

Oluwaseyi O Isehunwa et al. Int J Ment Health Addict. 2022 Jun.

. 2022 Jun;20(3):1465-1484.

doi: 10.1007/s11469-020-00455-1. Epub 2021 Jan 4.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ MGH/Harvard Center on Genomics, Vulnerable Populations, and Health Disparities, Mongan Institute, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
² Clinical Translational Epidemiology Unit, Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
³ Department of Biostatistics and Global Health, Yale School of Public Health, New Haven, CT, USA; Center for Methods on Implementation and Prevention Science, Yale School of Public Health, New Haven, CT, USA; Department of Statistics and Data Science, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA.
⁴ Slone Epidemiology Center, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA.
⁵ Department of Epidemiology, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.
⁶ Division of General Internal Medicine, University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), San Francisco, CA, USA.
⁷ Population Health Program, Texas Biomedical Research Institute San Antonio, TX, USA.
⁸ Department of Cancer Epidemiology, Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute, Tampa, FL, USA.
⁹ Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Psychology, University of the West Indies - Mona, Kingston, Jamaica.
¹¹ Channing Division of Network Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
¹² Program in Genetic Epidemiology and Statistical Genetics, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.

PMID: 35747346
PMCID: PMC9211376
DOI: 10.1007/s11469-020-00455-1

Abstract

Prospective studies on the association between depression and telomere length have produced mixed results and have been largely limited to European ancestry populations. We examined the associations between depression and telomere length, and the modifying influence of religion and spirituality, in four cohorts, each representing a different race/ethnic population. Relative leukocyte telomere length (RTL) was measured by a quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Our result showed that depression was not associated with RTL (percent difference: 3.0 95% CI: -3.9, 10.5; p = 0.41; p-heterogeneity across studies = 0.67) overall or in cohort-specific analyses. However, in cohort-specific analyses, there was some evidence of effect modification by the extent of religiosity or spirituality, religious congregation membership, and group prayer. Further research is needed to investigate prospective associations between depression and telomere length, and the resources of resilience including dimensions of religion and spirituality that may impact such dynamics in diverse racial/ethnic populations.

Keywords: Depression; Religiosity; Spirituality; Telomere length.

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Conflict of interest statement

Disclosure statement The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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Depression, religiosity, and telomere length in the Study on Stress, Spirituality, and Health (SSSH)

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Depression, religiosity, and telomere length in the Study on Stress, Spirituality, and Health (SSSH)

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