Childhood adversities increased risk for obesity in adulthood

Stressful emotional experiences in childhood were linked to an increased likelihood of obesity in adulthood and therefore an increased risk for type 2 diabetes, according to findings from a new study.

Researchers from University College London, in the United Kingdom, conducted a prospective, longitudinal study to examine the relationship between different emotional or neglectful adversities and adiposity and glucose control in mid-adulthood. They evaluated 9,310 participants of the 1958 British birth cohort who had a biomedical interview when they were 45 years old.

The risk for obesity increased from 20% to 50% for several adversities, according to the study. The adversities were physical, verbal or witnessed abuse, humiliation, neglect, strict upbringing, physical punishment, conflict or tension, low parental aspiration, low interest in education, hardly takes outings with parents and father hardly reads to child.

“Adversities with the strongest associations with adiposity tended to be associated with glycosylated hemoglobin levels ≥6, but in most cases associations were explained by adjustment for adulthood mediators such as adiposity,” the researchers wrote.

Additional research is needed to understand the interrelatedness of adversities, the social context of their occurrence and trajectories from adversity to adult disease, according to the study. – by Christen Haigh

Pediatrics. 2008;121:1240-1249.