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Updated: Feb 26, 2026
Telomere Length and Telomerase Activity; A Yin and Yang of Cell Senescence
Published on: May 22, 2013
Associations Between Age, Psychosocial Work Conditions, Occupational Well-Being, and Telomere Length in Geriatric
Caroline Chmelar1, Rudolf A Jörres, Angelika Kronseder
1Institute and Clinic for Occupational, Social and Environmental Medicine, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich (Dr Chmelar, Dr Jörres, Ms Kronseder, Dr Nowak, Mr Weigl); Institute for Occupational, Social, and Environmental Medicine, Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf (Dr Müller), Germany.
Objective:
We identified associations between age, psychosocial work characteristics, occupational well-being, and-as a measure of biological age-leukocyte telomere length in geriatric care professionals.
Methods:
This is a multisource study of self-reports on psychosocial work characteristics, standardized physician's evaluations of health, and relative telomere length measures of peripheral blood leukocytes. We included 141 geriatric care professionals. Telomere length was assessed by an improved polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based method.
Results:
Increased depersonalization was associated with shorter telomeres. Their association with age was not moderated by psychosocial work conditions. There was, however, a significant three-way interaction of social support and work ability with the age-telomere association. Additionally, social support and adverse general health moderated the age-telomere length relationship.
Conclusions:
A supportive work environment and work-related health may influence the association between age and telomere length.
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