Cognitive performance and leukocyte telomere length in two narrow age-range cohorts: a population study

BMC Geriatrics

Table 2 Cross-sectional correlations between telomere length and cognitive scores (Wave 2) by age cohort and sex

Cognitive Test	Age Cohort	r	P-value	Partial r	P-value
Immediate recall	40+	0.021	0.694	-0.019	0.728
	40+ Men	-0.026	0.747	-0.053	0.520
	40+ Women	0.037	0.609	0.001	0.985
	60+	-0.065	0.263	-0.108	0.073
	60+ Men	-0.038	0.636	-0.125	0.130
	60+ Women	-0.114	0.186	-0.094	0.303
SDMT^a	40+	-0.013	0.809	-0.001	0.979
	40+ Men	-0.107	0.186	-0.111	0.176
	40+ Women	0.061	0.393	0.088	0.231
	60+	0.104	0.076	0.135	0.025*
	60+ Men	0.173	0.031*	0.193	0.018*
	60+ Women	0.050	0.563	0.087	0.340
Simple RT^b	40+	-0.033	0.543	-0.014	0.795
(secs)	40+ Men	-0.060	0.467	0.016	0.849
	40+ Women	-0.064	0.381	-0.047	0.528
	60+	0.076	0.204	0.099	0.108
	60+ Men	-0.051	0.529	0.005	0.950
	60+ Women	0.185	0.036*	0.218	0.018*
Choice RT	40+	0.000	0.997	-0.009	0.871
(secs)	40+ Men	0.007	0.929	0.013	0.880
	40+ Women	-0.022	0.767	-0.025	0.732
	60+	0.017	0.770	0.036	0.556
	60+ Men	-0.121	0.134	-0.051	0.546
	60+ Women	0.139	0.114	0.136	0.143
Trails B	40+	0.045	0.398	0.036	0.506
	40+ Men	0.139	0.085	0.137	0.095
	40+ Women	-0.038	0.601	-0.063	0.388
	60+	-0.024	0.680	-0.025	0.674
	60+ Men	-0.095	0.239	-0.080	0.331
	60+ Women	0.036	0.678	0.017	0.852

TL = telomere length; SDMT = Symbol Digit Modalities Test; RT = reaction time;
*p < 0.05. Partial correlations were adjusted for age, Spot-the-Word, alcohol consumption, physical activity, systolic blood pressure and sex were appropriate.
^a For SDMT, outliers (z-scores > +3.29 or < -3.29) were omitted from the bivariate correlations for the 60+ cohort.
^b For simple reaction time, outliers (z-scores > +3.29 or < -3.29) were omitted from the bivariate correlations.

ISSN: 1471-2318