Race-specific associations between health-related quality of life and cellular aging among adults in the United States: evidence from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey

Purpose Poor health-related quality of life (HRQOL) could lead to higher morbidity and mortality through telomere attrition or accelerated cellular aging. We conducted a cross-sectional analysis to examine the relationship between four dimensions of HRQOL and leukocyte telomere length (LTL) among a nationally representative sample of 3547 US adults (≥20 years) using the data from the 2001–2002 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.