Example 4: Psychosocial distress is associated with accelerated telomere erosion. We have measured telomere length in the Dunedin cohort at ages 26 and 38 years, allowing us to be one of the first research teams to test telomere erosion over time (not just length at one point in time). In our study, erosion was accelerated among cohort members who experienced psychosocial distress [43]. These findings will help to unravel how early experiences affect individual differences in the pace of ageing and age-related disease [44], including among those experiencing persistent asthma since childhood [45]. The latter finding builds on earlier work describing the natural history of, and risk factors for, asthma and atopy from childhood to adulthood (e.g., [46, 47]).
