Pathogen burden and leukocyte telomere length in the United States

Immunity & Ageing

Table 1 Population-weighted distributions of pathogen burden and telomere length (log T/S ratio) for individuals aged 20–49 years by demographic and clinical characteristics, National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (1999–2000), n = 1708

	Overall N (%)	Pathogen burden count score (%)				Pathogen burden composition class (%)			Leukocyte telomere length (log T/S/ ratio)
	Overall N (%)	0 (12%)	1 (27%)	2–3 (49%)	4+ (12%)	Comp 1 (49%)	Comp 2 (48%)	Comp 3 (3%)	Mean (SE)
Overall									0.07 (0.02)
Age (years)
20–29	562 (30)	34	38	28	16	35	25	21	0.12 (0.02)
30–39	602 (38)	41	31	40	44	35	42	33	0.07 (0.02)
40–49	544 (32)	25	31	32	40	30	33	46	0.01 (0.03)
Gender
Male	770 (48)	61	53	46	38	54	42	50	0.08 (0.02)
Female	938 (52)	39	47	54	62	46	58	50	0.06 (0.02)
Race/Ethnicity
N-H Black	316 (10)	4	4	11	28	87	55	26	0.10 (0.02)
N-H White	724 (70)	89	88	65	32	4	17	11	0.02 (0.01)
Hispanic	627 (17)	4	7	21	35	7	25	56	0.06 (0.03)
Other	41 (3)	3	1	3	5	2	4	8	0.10 (0.06)
Education
< High school	173 (4)	0.67	0.32	5	13	0	7	17	0.06 (0.03)
Some high school	340 (15)	6	9	18	27	9	21	26	0.06 (0.03)
High school/GED	398 (26)	24	26	28	22	26	26	36	0.05 (0.02)
Some college/AA degree	466 (30)	33	32	28	26	32	28	21	0.06 (0.02)
College or above	331 (25)	37	32	21	12	33	18	1	0.09 (0.03)
Body Mass Index
< 18.5	28 (2)	3	1	3	4	2	3	0	0.04 (0.03)
18.5 to < 25	558 (36)	40	36	37	29	37	35	35	0.11 (0.02)
25 to < 30	562 (32)	23	37	33	31	33	33	27	0.06 (0.02)
30+	562 (29)	33	25	28	36	28	29	37	0.03 (0.03)
Cigarette Smoking Status
Never	977 (53)	58	57	51	49	58	49	46	0.08 (0.02)
Former	288 (18)	16	19	18	18	17	18	18	0.04 (0.02)
Current	443 (29)	27	24	31	33	25	33	36	0.06 (0.02)

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