2008 Telomere Data

The 2008 Telomere Data release (Final, Version 1.0) includes average telomere length data from 5808 HRS respondents who consented and provided a saliva sample during the 2008 interview wave. Assays were performed by Telome Health (Telomere Diagnostics, http://www.telomehealth.com/). Average telomere length was assayed using quantitative PCR (qPCR) by comparing telomere sequence copy number in each patient's sample (T) to a single-copy gene copy number (S). The resulting T/S ratio is proportional to mean telomere length. Funding was provided by the National Institute on Aging (NIH U01 AGO9740 and RC4 AG039029).