Association between Physical Activity and Telomere Length in a North Chinese Population: A China Suboptimal Health Cohort Study

Several studies have demonstrated an association between physical activity and telomere length; however, the association remains inconsistent. A cross-sectional study consisting of 588 participants (375 females, median age of 33.8 years) was carried out to investigate the association between telomere length and physical activity in a general population from North China. The results show that relative telomere length is not significantly different in participants in the northern Chinese population with different levels of physical activity, either in the model only adjusted for age (F = 2.127, P = 0.120) or in the model adjusted for demographics and lifestyle (F = 1.227, P = 0.294). The gender-stratified analysis also produced insignificant results. Our study confirmed a non-significant association between physical activity and telomere length in the northern Chinese population, which adds to the inconsistent association between physical activity and telomere length across different ethnic populations.