Sedentary Behaviour and Telomere Length Shortening during Early Childhood: Evidence from the Multicentre Prospective INMA Cohort Study

Daniel Prieto-Botella; Dries S Martens; Desiree Valera-Gran; Mikel Subiza-Pérez; Adonina Tardón; Manuel Lozano; Maribel Casas; Mariona Bustamante; Alba Jimeno-Romero; Ana Fernández-Somoano; Sabrina Llop; Martine Vrijheid; Tim S Nawrot; Eva-María Navarrete-Muñoz

doi:10.3390/ijerph20065134

Sedentary Behaviour and Telomere Length Shortening during Early Childhood: Evidence from the Multicentre Prospective INMA Cohort Study

Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2023 Mar 14;20(6):5134. doi: 10.3390/ijerph20065134.

Authors

Daniel Prieto-Botella¹, Dries S Martens², Desiree Valera-Gran^{1

3

4}, Mikel Subiza-Pérez^{5

6

7

8}, Adonina Tardón^{9

10}, Manuel Lozano^{11

12}, Maribel Casas^{6

13

14}, Mariona Bustamante^{6

13

14}, Alba Jimeno-Romero¹⁵, Ana Fernández-Somoano^{6

9

10}, Sabrina Llop^{6

11}, Martine Vrijheid^{6

13

14}, Tim S Nawrot^{2

16}, Eva-María Navarrete-Muñoz^{1

3

4}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Surgery and Pathology, Miguel Hernandez University, 03550 Alicante, Spain.
² Centre for Environmental Sciences, Hasselt University, Agoralaan Gebouw D, BE-3590 Hasselt, Belgium.
³ Grupo de Investigación en Terapia Ocupacional (InTeO), Miguel Hernández University, 03550 Alicante, Spain.
⁴ Alicante Institute for Health and Biomedical Research (ISABIAL-FISABIO Foundation), 03010 Alicante, Spain.
⁵ Biodonostia Health Research Institute, Group of Environmental Epidemiology and Child Development, 20014 San Sebastian, Spain.
⁶ Spanish Consortium for Research on Epidemiology and Public Health (CIBERESP), 28029 Madrid, Spain.
⁷ Department of Clinical and Health Psychology and Research Methods, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), 20018 Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain.
⁸ Bradford Institute for Health Research, Temple Bank House, Bradford Royal Infirmary, Duckworth Lane, Bradford BD9 6RJ, UK.
⁹ Unidad de Epidemiología Molecular del Cáncer, Departamento de Medicina, Instituto Universitario de Oncología del Principado de Asturias (IUOPA), Universidad de Oviedo, Julián Clavería Street s/n, 33006 Oviedo, Spain.
¹⁰ Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria del Principado de Asturias (ISPA), Roma Avenue s/n, 33001 Oviedo, Spain.
¹¹ Epidemiology and Environmental Health Joint Research Unit, FISABIO-Universitat Jaume I-Universitat de València, 46020 Valencia, Spain.
¹² Preventive Medicine and Public Health, Food Sciences, Toxicology and Forensic Medicine Department, Universitat de València, 46100 Valencia, Spain.
¹³ ISGlobal, Institute for Global Health, 08003 Barcelona, Spain.
¹⁴ Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), 08003 Barcelona, Spain.
¹⁵ Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), 48940 Leioa, Spain.
¹⁶ Department of Public Health & Primary Care, University of Leuven (KU Leuven), BE-3000 Leuven, Belgium.

Abstract

Sedentary behaviour (SB) may be related to telomere length (TL) attrition due to a possible pro-inflammatory effect. This study examined the association between parent-reported sedentary behaviour (SB) and leukocyte TL at the age of 4 and telomere tracking from 4 to 8 years. In the Spanish birth cohort Infancia y Medio Ambiente (INMA) project, we analysed data from children who attended follow-up visits at age 4 (n = 669) and 8 (n = 530). Multiple robust regression models were used to explore the associations between mean daily hours of SB (screen time, other sedentary activities, and total SB) at 4 years categorised into tertiles and TL at 4 years and difference in TL rank between age 4 and 8, respectively. At the age of 4, the results showed that children with the highest screen time (1.6-5.0 h/day) had a shorter TL of -3.9% (95% CI: -7.4, -0.4; p = 0.03) compared with children in the lowest tertile (0.0-1.0 h/day). Between 4 and 8 years, a higher screen time (highest tertile group vs. lowest tertile) was associated with a decrease in the LTL rank of -1.9% (95% CI: -3.8, -0.1; p = 0.03) from 4 to 8 years. Children exposed to a higher screen time at 4 years were more prone to have shorter TL at 4 and between 4 and 8 years of age. This study supports the potential negative effect of SB during childhood on cellular longevity.

Keywords: cellular longevity; children; epigenetics; genetics; lifestyle; screen time.

Publication types

Multicenter Study
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Child
Child, Preschool
Cohort Studies
Humans
Leukocytes
Longitudinal Studies
Prospective Studies
Sedentary Behavior*
Telomere*

Grants and funding

This research was funded by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III/Agencia Estatal de Investigación (PI18/00825: “Dieta y actividad física en embarazo y tras el nacimiento y longitud del telómero en niños y adolescentes: Proyecto TeloDiPA” and European Regional Development Fund (ERDF): “Una manera de hacer Europa”); the Generalitat Valenciana (GVA/2021/191, CIAICO/2021/132); the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (FIS-PI09/00090, PI04/2018, PI09/02311, PI13/02429, PI16/1288, PI18/00909, PI19/1338 and FIS-PI18/01142 incl. ERFD funds, PS20/0006), the Department of Health of the Basque Government (2013111089); the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (FIS-PI13/02187 and FIS-PI18/01142 incl. ERFD funds), the Department of Health of the Basque Government (2015111065), and the Provincial Government of Gipuzkoa (DFG15/221) and annual agreements with the municipalities of the study area (Zumarraga, Urretxu, Legazpi, Azkoitia y Azpeitia y Beasain); Obra Social Cajastur/Fundación Liberbank and Universidad de Oviedo; and Gobierno de España through Ministerio de Universidades under the grants CAS21/00008 and NextGenerationEU. DPB was supported by the Miguel Hernández University (Ayudas Movilidad Internacional 2021, Erasmus+ 2021) during the development of this study. In addition, DM holds a postdoctoral grant by the Flemish Scientific Fund (FWO grant 12X9620N). The funders had no role in the design of the study; collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data; preparation, review, or approval and submission of the manuscript. The APC was funded by PI18/00825.