Raising the bar on telomere epidemiology

Abstract

In his commentary ‘Raising the bar on telomere epidemiology’,¹ Dr Aviv reported an alleged inconsistency in Table 1 from our study on telomere shortening:² ‘In this regard, there is a discrepancy in data presented within Table 1, and between Table 1 and Figure 3. The table shows that in 1995, the age of all participants, i.e. ‘‘all samples’’, was 53–71 years and that of the deceased was 67–81 years. How could that be? Moreover, data displayed in Figure 3 suggest that the age range of the sample was in fact ∼45–85 years, which is in conflict with Table 1.’ As a matter of fact, the numbers that Dr Aviv obviously interpreted as the full age range of the sample, were interquartile ranges as unequivocally described in the legend to Table 1.² The true full age range of 45–84 years was depicted several times in the text and Figure 3, so there is little reason for misinterpretation and clearly no contradiction as claimed by Dr Aviv.¹