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Adverse childhood events linked to increased risk for adult disease
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Children exposed to negative psychological and social experiences are more likely to experience mental and physical abnormalities that put them at greater risk for health problems in adulthood, findings from a new study indicate.
“Reducing damage done by adverse childhood experiences may help reduce the cost of age-related diseases," Danese et al wrote.
The researchers regularly evaluated the physical and psychiatric health of 1,037 people aged between 3 years and 32 years who participated in the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study, a longitudinal study of individuals born between April 1972 and March 1973 in Dunedin, New Zealand.
They found that those who experienced socioeconomic disadvantage (incidence rate ratio, 1.89; 95% CI, 1.36-2.62), maltreatment (IRR, 1.81; 95% CI, 1.38-2.38), or social isolation (IRR, 1.87; 95% CI, 1.38-2.51) during the first decade of life were more likely to experience risk factors for age-related disease. These included major depression, high inflammation levels and the clustering of metabolic risk biomarkers (overweight, high blood pressure, high total cholesterol, low HDL, high glycated hemoglobin and low maximum oxygen consumption levels).
After controlling for established developmental risk factors, the researchers estimated that childhood adverse experiences accounted for 31.6% of depression, 13% of elevated inflammation and 32.3% of clustering metabolic risk markers observed in the cohort.
Additional analysis revealed a correlation between the number of adverse childhood experiences and the prevalence of age-related disease risks — with both increasing proportionally — independent of concurrent circumstance and behaviors, such as low socioeconomic status in adulthood, smoking, physical inactivity and poor diet.
Because each adverse childhood experience measured had an independent affect on age-related-disease risk, tailored interventions may be more effective than a large, umbrella strategy, the researchers wrote. “Relieving childhood poverty alone may be insufficient to reduce health inequalities associated with adverse childhood experiences.”
“Whereas long-term social, political and economic changes may be necessary to improve children’s socioeconomic conditions, available intervention targeting childhood maltreatment and social isolation can be more readily implemented to prevent age-related disease,” the researchers wrote.
Danese AD. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2009;163:1135-1143.