Infection and telomere length: a systematic review protocol.

Introduction: Telomeres are a measure of cellular ageing with potential links to diseases such as cardiovascular diseases and cancer. Studies have shown that some infections may be associated with telomere shortening, but whether an association exists across all types and severities of infections and in which populations is unclear. Therefore we aim to collate available evidence to enable comparison and to inform future research in this field.

Methods And Analysis: We will search for studies involving telomere length and infection in various databases including MEDLINE (Ovid interface), EMBASE (Ovid interface), Web of Science, Scopus, Global Health and the Cochrane Library. For grey literature, the British Library of electronic theses databases (ETHOS) will be explored. We will not limit by study type, geographical location, infection type or method of outcome measurement. Two researchers will independently carry out study selection, data extraction and risk of bias assessment using the ROB2 and ROBINS-E tools. The overall quality of the studies will be determined using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation criteria. We will also evaluate study heterogeneity with respect to study design, exposure and outcome measurement and if there is sufficient homogeneity, a meta-analysis will be conducted. Otherwise, we will provide a narrative synthesis with results grouped by exposure category and study design.

Ethics And Dissemination: The present study does not require ethical approval. Results will be disseminated via publishing in a peer-reviewed journal and conference presentations.

Prospero Registration Number: CRD42023444854.