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The Association Between Telomere Length and Diabetes Mellitus: Accumulated Evidence From Observational Studies
Xinxin He1, Lu Cao2, Xueru Fu1
1Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, College of Public Health, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, Henan 450001, People's Republic of China.
Objective:
In order to assess the associations between telomere length (TL) and diabetes mellitus (DM), especially type 2 diabetes (T2DM), we performed this systematic review and meta-analysis.
Methods:
PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science were thoroughly searched up to July 11, 2023. The pooled standardized mean difference (SMD) and the 95% confidence interval (CI) were evaluated using the random-effects model. Age, sex, study design, duration of diabetes, region, sample size, and body mass index (BMI) were used to stratify subgroup analyses.
Results:
A total of 37 observational studies involving 18 181 participants from 14 countries were included in the quantitative meta-analysis. In this study, patients with diabetes had shorter TL than the non-diabetic, whether those patients had T1DM (-2.70; 95% CI: -4.47, -0.93; P < .001), T2DM (-3.70; 95% CI: -4.20, -3.20; P < .001), or other types of diabetes (-0.71; 95% CI: -1.10, -0.31; P < .001). Additionally, subgroup analysis of T2DM showed that TL was significantly correlated with age, sex, study design, diabetes duration, sample size, detection method, region, and BMI.
Conclusion:
A negative correlation was observed between TL and DM. To validate this association in the interim, more extensive, superior prospective investigations and clinical trials are required.
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