Perceived neighborhood problems are associated with shorter telomere length in African American women

OBJECTIVES African Americans (AA) experience higher levels of stress related to living in racially segregated and poor neighborhoods. However, little is known about the associations between perceived neighborhood environments and cellular aging among adult AA. This study examined whether perceived neighborhood environments were associated with telomere length (TL) in AA after adjustment for individual-level risk factors. METHODS The analysis included 158 women and 75 men AA aged 30-55 years from the Morehouse School of Medicine Study. Relative TL (T/S ratio) was measured from peripheral blood leukocytes using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. Multivariable linear regression models were used to examine the associations of perceived neighborhood social cohesion, problems, and overall unfavorable perceptions with log-TL. RESULTS Women had significantly longer TL than men (0.59 vs. 0.54, p=0.012). After controlling for sociodemographic, and biomedical and psychosocial factors, a 1-SD increase in perceived neighborhood problems was associated with 7.3% shorter TL in women (Mean Difference [MD]=-0.073 (Standard Error=0.03), p=0.012). Overall unfavorable perception of neighborhood was also associated with 5.9% shorter TL among women (MD=-0.059(0.03), p=0.023). Better perceived social cohesion were associated with 2.4% longer TL, but did not reach statistical significance (MD=0.024(0.02), p=0.218). No association was observed between perceived neighborhood environments and TL in men. CONCLUSIONS Our findings suggest that perceived neighborhood environments may be predictive of cellular aging in AA women even after accounting for individual-level risk factors. Additional research with a larger sample is needed to determine whether perceived neighborhood environments are causally related to TL.