Associations of baseline telomere length with high-attenuation areas (HAAs)
| Model | Number of participants | Mean per cent change in Examination 1 HAAs (95% CI) | P value | % longitudinal change in HAAs per 10 years (95% CI) | P value |
| Absolute telomere length* | 4488 | −6.51 (−10.24 to −2.62) | 0.001 | 0.32 (−4.68 to 5.35) | 0.90 |
| Age-adjusted telomere length percentile cut-offs | |||||
| Above 5th percentile | 4267 | 0.0 (ref) | 0.0 (ref) | ||
| Below 5th percentile | 221 | 0.44 (−2.55 to 3.52) | 0.78 | 0.87 (−2.82 to 4.56) | 0.65 |
| Above 10th percentile | 4042 | 0.0 (ref) | 0.0 (ref) | ||
| Below 10th percentile | 446 | 0.16 (−2.00 to 2.36) | 0.88 | 1.41 (−1.28 to 4.10) | 0.30 |
| Above 25th percentile | 3369 | 0.0 (ref) | 0.0 (ref) | ||
| Below 25th percentile | 1119 | 1.56 (0.04 to 3.11) | 0.04 | 0.11 (−1.74 to 1.96) | 0.91 |
Examination 1 HAAs model: adjusted for scanner parameters, principal components of genetic ancestry, and baseline age, sex, self-reported race/ethnicity, smoking status, cigarette pack-years height, weight, and per cent emphysema.
Longitudinal HAAs model: adjusted for scanner parameters and principal components of genetic ancestry. Baseline age, sex, self-reported race/ethnicity, smoking status and cigarette pack-years were also adjusted for including their interaction terms with ‘time since initial HAA assessment’. Time-varying covariates height, weight, per cent emphysema and cigarettes smoked per day were also adjusted for in the model.
*Reported per SD increment of log-transformed telomere length.