Sociodemographic correlates and family aggregation of leukocyte telomere length in adults and children from Mesoamerica

Objective Telomere length is a biomarker of cumulative stress and inflammation related to chronic disease risk. We examined the associations of leukocyte telomere length (LTL) with sociodemographic and anthropometric variables and estimated LTL family aggregation in Central America, a region with a high burden of chronic disease where LTL has not been studied. Methods We conducted a cross‐sectional study of 174 school age children and their parents in the capital cities of Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, and the city of Tuxtla‐Gutierrez in Mexico. We measured LTL by quantitative PCR in DNA extracted from whole blood. We compared the distribution of LTL by categories of sociodemographic and anthropometric characteristics using linear regression. Family aggregation was estimated with correlation coefficients and intraclass correlations. Results In mothers, LTL was inversely associated with age (P, trend