%0 Journal Article %A Mons, Ute %A Müezzinler, Aysel %A Schöttker, Ben %A Dieffenbach, Aida Karina %A Butterbach, Katja %A Schick, Matthias %A Peasey, Anne %A De Vivo, Immaculata %A Trichopoulou, Antonia %A Boffetta, Paolo %A Brenner, Hermann %T Leukocyte Telomere Length and All-Cause, Cardiovascular Disease, and Cancer Mortality: Results From Individual-Participant-Data Meta-Analysis of 2 Large Prospective Cohort Studies. %J American journal of epidemiology %V 185 %N 12 %@ 1476-6256 %C Oxford %I Oxford Univ. Press %M DKFZ-2017-01373 %P 1317 - 1326 %D 2017 %X We studied the associations of leukocyte telomere length (LTL) with all-cause, cardiovascular disease, and cancer mortality in 12,199 adults participating in 2 population-based prospective cohort studies from Europe (ESTHER) and the United States (Nurses' Health Study). Blood samples were collected in 1989-1990 (Nurses' Health Study) and 2000-2002 (ESTHER). LTL was measured by quantitative polymerase chain reaction. We calculated z scores for LTL to standardize LTL measurements across the cohorts. Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to calculate relative mortality according to continuous levels and quintiles of LTL z scores. The hazard ratios obtained from each cohort were subsequently pooled by meta-analysis. Overall, 2,882 deaths were recorded during follow-up (Nurses' Health Study, 1989-2010; ESTHER, 2000-2015). LTL was inversely associated with age in both cohorts. After adjustment for age, a significant inverse trend of LTL with all-cause mortality was observed in both cohorts. In random-effects meta-analysis, age-adjusted hazard ratios for the shortest LTL quintile compared with the longest were 1.23 (95 %F PUB:(DE-HGF)16 %9 Journal Article %$ pmid:28459963 %R 10.1093/aje/kww210 %U https://inrepo02.dkfz.de/record/125218