Mather, Karen AJorm, Anthony FMilburn, Peter JEasteal, SimonChristensen, HelenAnstey, Kaarin2016-01-052016-01-051471-2318http://hdl.handle.net/1885/95244BACKGROUND Cognitive function and telomere length both decline with age. A correlation between these two measures would suggest that they may be influenced by the same underlying age-related biological process. Several studies suggest telomere length may be positively correlated with cognitive performance but the evidence is equivocal. In this report, the relationships between telomere length and cognitive performance at Wave 2 and cognitive change from Wave 1 to Wave 2 are assessed in two narrow age-range population cohorts. METHODS We tested the hypothesis that leukocyte telomere length correlates positively with cognitive performance and cognitive decline in two community cohorts of middle-aged (n = 351, 44-49 years) and older (n = 295, 64-70 years) adults, who participated in two waves of a longitudinal study undertaken in the Canberra-Queanbeyan region of Australia. Telomere length was estimated at Wave 2. Cognitive performance was measured using the Symbol Digit Modalities Test, the immediate recall test of the California Verbal Learning Test, reaction time (simple & choice) and the Trails Test Part B. RESULTS Cross-sectionally at Wave 2, telomere length correlated with Symbol Digit Modalities Test scores (men) and simple reaction time (women) for the older cohort only, although the latter finding was in the opposite direction to that hypothesised. Telomere length measured at Wave 2 was not associated with cognitive change from Wave 1 to Wave 2 for either cohort, except for two associations of small magnitude (immediate recall in the older cohort, choice reaction time in older women), which were also in the contrary direction to that predicted. CONCLUSIONS These results do not give strong support to the hypothesis that leukocyte telomere length is associated with either levels of cognitive performance or age-related cognitive change.This work was supported by an Australian National Health and Medical Research Council Program Grant 179805 and an R.M. Gibson Grant from the Australian Association of Gerontology. A.F. Jorm, K.J. Anstey and H. Christensen are funded by NHMRC Fellowships.© Mather et al. 2010 This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://​creativecommons.​org/​licenses/​by/​2.​0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.adultage factorsagedagingcognitioncognition disorderscohort studiescross-sectional studiesfemalehumansleukocyteslongitudinal studiesmalemiddle agedpsychomotor performancetelomerepopulation surveillance2010-09-1610.1186/1471-2318-10-622016-02-24