Telomere Length and Symptoms of Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder in Children at 6-12 Years.

Irene Campos-Sánchez; Eva María Navarrete-Muñoz; Dries S. Martens; Isolina Riaño-Galán; Aitana Lertxundi; Sabrina Llop; Mónica Guxens; Cristina Rodríguez-Dehli; Nerea Lertxundi; Raquel Soler-Blasco; Martine Vrijheid; Tim S. Nawrot; John Wright; Tiffany C. Yang; Rosie McEachan; Kristine Bjerve Gützkow; Vaia Lida Chatzi; Marina Vafeiadi; Mariza Kampouri; Regina Grazuleviciene; Sandra Andrusaityte; Johanna Lepeule; Desirée Valera-Gran

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ERIC Number: EJ1467296

Record Type: Journal

Publication Date: 2025-Apr

Pages: 12

Abstractor: As Provided

ISBN: N/A

ISSN: ISSN-1087-0547

EISSN: EISSN-1557-1246

Available Date: 0000-00-00

Telomere Length and Symptoms of Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder in Children at 6-12 Years

Irene Campos-Sánchez¹; Eva María Navarrete-Muñoz^1,2; Dries S. Martens³; Isolina Riaño-Galán^4,5; Aitana Lertxundi^5,6,7; Sabrina Llop^5,8,9; Mónica Guxens^5,10,11,12; Cristina Rodríguez-Dehli¹³; Nerea Lertxundi^5,6,7; Raquel Soler-Blasco^5,8,9; Martine Vrijheid^5,10,11; Tim S. Nawrot³; John Wright¹⁴; Tiffany C. Yang¹⁴; Rosie McEachan¹⁴; Kristine Bjerve Gützkow¹⁵; Vaia Lida Chatzi¹⁶; Marina Vafeiadi^17,18; Mariza Kampouri^17,18; Regina Grazuleviciene¹⁹; Sandra Andrusaityte¹⁹; Johanna Lepeule²⁰; Desirée Valera-Gran^1,2

Journal of Attention Disorders, v29 n6 p474-485 2025

Objective: To explore the association between telomere length (TL) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms in children at 6-12 years. Method: Data from 1,759 children belonging to the HELIX project cohorts and the Asturias, Gipuzkoa and Valencia cohorts of INMA project were included. TL was determined by blood sample using a PCR protocol. ADHD symptoms were described by parents using the Conners' Parent Rating Scale-Revised: Short Form. Multiple negative binomial regression models adjusted for potential confounders were used to estimate associations. Results: Overall estimates showed no associations between TL and ADHD symptoms. However, we observed that a longer TL was significantly associated with a lower risk of presenting hyperactivity symptoms in children belonging to the HELIX project (IRR = 0.93, 95% CI [0.87, 0.99]; p = 0.022). Conclusion: While our study did not find a consistent association between TL and ADHD symptoms across all cohorts, the significant association found within the HELIX cohort suggests that longer TL may be linked to a lower risk of hyperactivity symptoms. Further research is needed to explore this association in more detail.

Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Genetic Disorders, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Mothers, Elementary School Students, Middle School Students, Symptoms (Individual Disorders), Neurodevelopmental Disorders, Genetics, Causal Models

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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research

Education Level: Elementary Education; Junior High Schools; Middle Schools; Secondary Education

Audience: N/A

Language: English

Sponsor: N/A

Authoring Institution: N/A

Identifiers - Location: United Kingdom; Greece; Spain; Norway; France; Lithuania

Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A

Author Affiliations: ¹Occupational Therapy Research Group (InTeO, Investigación en Terapia Ocupacional), Department of Surgery and Pathology, Miguel Hernandez University, Alicante, Spain; ²Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria y Biomédica de Alicante, Universidad Miguel Hernández (ISABIAL-UMH), Alicante, Spain; ³Center of Environmental Sciences, Hasselt University, Belgium; ⁴Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria del Principado de Asturias, Oviedo, Asturias, Endocrinología Pediátrica, Hospital Universitario Central de Asturias, Universidad de Oviedo, Spain; ⁵Spanish Consortium for Research on Epidemiology and Public Health (CIBERESP), Madrid, Spain; ⁶University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Spain; ⁷Group of Environmental Epidemiology and Child Development, Biogipuzkoa Health Research Institute, San Sebastián, Spain; ⁸Epidemiology and Environmental Health Joint Research Unit, FISABIO–Universitat Jaume I-University of Valencia, Spain; ⁹Faculty of Nursing and Chiropody, University of Valencia, Spain; ¹⁰ISGlobal, Barcelona, Spain; ¹¹Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain; ¹²Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry/Psychology, Erasmus MC, University Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands; ¹³Servicio de Pediatría, Hospital San Agustín de Avilés, Spain; ¹⁴Bradford Institute for Health Research, Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, UK; ¹⁵Division of Climate and Environmental Health, Department of Air Quality and Noise, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway; ¹⁶Department of Preventive Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA; ¹⁷Faculty of Medicine, Department of Social Medicine, University of Crete, Heraklion, Greece; ¹⁸Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden; ¹⁹Department of Environmental Science, Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas, Lithuania; ²⁰Université Grenoble Alpes, Inserm, CNRS, Team of Environmental Epidemiology Applied to Development and Respiratory Health, IAB, Grenoble, France