Table 4.

Regression of the Rate of Change in Leukocyte Telomere Length on Parameters of Interest for Participants in the Bogalusa Heart Study in Louisiana^ab

	Entire Cohort (n = 635)				Subjects With no Gain in LTL (n = 561)
	β Coefficient	P Value	Partial R2	Model R2	β Coefficient	P Value	Partial R2	Model R2
Model I
Race, African American	−9.9	0.0135	0.010	0.010	−14.1	<0.0001	0.026	0.026
Model II
Race, African American	−4.6	0.2772	0.010		−5.9	0.1070	0.026
LTLB, bp	−9.6	<0.0001	0.023	0.033	−15.6	<0.0001	0.084	0.110
Model III
Race, African American	−3.4	0.4309	0.010		−4.4	0.2424	0.026
LTLB, bp	−9.9	<0.0001	0.023		−16.1	<0.0001	0.084
Age, years	−0.6	0.1120	0.003		−0.6	0.0605	−0.007
BMI, kg/m2	−0.2	0.5464	0.000		−0.3	0.1288	0.004
Smoking, yes/no	−3.6	0.3533	0.000		−0.5	0.8760	0.000
Sex, female	−3.6	0.3378	0.002	0.038	−1.3	0.6885	0.000	0.121

Abbreviations: BMI, body mass index; bp, base pairs; LTL, leukocyte telomere length (expressed in bp); LTL_B, baseline LTL; LTL_FU, follow-up LTL.

^aThe rate of change in LTL (bp/year) = (LTL_FU − LTL_B)/follow-up years.

^bThe rate of change in LTL is negative; therefore, negative regression coefficients denote faster LTL attrition.