Conclusions
We provide telomere length population values for children aged 11-12 years and their mid-life parents. Relative telomere length was shorter in adults than children, as expected. There was modest evidence of parent-child concordance, which diminished with increasing parent age.
Results
Mean T/S ratio for all children, boys and girls was 1.09 (SD 0.56), 1.05 (SD 0.53) and 1.13 (SD 0.59), respectively. Mean T/S ratio for all parents, fathers and mothers was 0.81 (SD 0.37), 0.82 (SD 0.36) and 0.81 (SD 0.38), respectively. Parent-child T/S ratio concordance was moderate (correlation 0.24). In adjusted regression models, one unit higher parent T/S ratio was associated with 0.36 (estimated linear regression coefficient (β); 95% CI 0.28 to 0.45) higher child T/S ratio. Concordance was higher in the youngest parent-age tertile (β 0.49; 95% CI 0.34 to 0.64) compared with the middle (β 0.35; 95% CI 0.21 to 0.48) and oldest tertile (β 0.26; 95% CI 0.11 to 0.41; p-trend 0.04). Father-child concordance was 0.34 (95% CI 0.18 to 0.48), while mother-child was 0.22 (95% CI 0.17 to 0.28). Conclusions: We provide telomere length population values for children aged 11-12 years and their mid-life parents. Relative telomere length was shorter in adults than children, as expected. There was modest evidence of parent-child concordance, which diminished with increasing parent age.