Background: Telomere length has been postulated as a marker of biological aging. Recent evidence has suggested that educational attainment but not social class is associated with telemore length.
Methods: We investigated the associations between educational attainment, social class and relative mean telomere length in an ethnically homogeneous population of 4441 women, aged 41-80 years. Mean telomere length was measured using high-throughput quantitative Real Time PCR.
Results: Educational attainment (p=0.015) but not social class (p=0.61) was associated with mean telomere length in these data. This association was independent of social class and of systolic blood pressure, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, cigarette smoking, body mass index, glycated hemoglobin, plasma vitamin C and physical activity (p=0.014), and was not attenuated through additional adjustment for measures of social adversity, including those experienced during childhood (p=0.006).
Conclusions: Our results, at least for women, provide support for the findings previously reported in this journal that lower educational attainment, but not social class, is associated with shorter telomere length.
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