Telomere length measures in the Northern Ireland cohort for the longitudinal study of ageing (NICOLA)

OBJECTIVES: Using blood derived DNA collected from individuals within the Northern Ireland COhort for the Longitudinal study of Ageing (NICOLA), quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) based absolute telomere length measures were derived in triplicate. This data is generated on a subset of participants (n = 2,971) within the NICOLA cohort at Wave 1 baseline. NICOLA commenced Wave 3 of data collection in Autumn 2024. DATA DESCRIPTION: The NICOLA study recruited approximately 8,500 people from across Northern Ireland, with individuals recruited as representative of the Northern Ireland population. At recruitment, the NICOLA cohort was 45% male and 55% female. Adults were recruited over the age of 50, with approximately 50% of participants aged between 50 and 65, and 10% of participants over the age of 80. Telomere length (TL) values were determined for 2,971individuals (47.7% male) across 33 batches using the Absolute Human Telomere Length Quantification qPCR Assay kit and Roche LightCycler 480 II. Within-batch duplicate measures were established, as were water controls and non-template controls.