Associations of childhood adversity and adulthood trauma with C-reactive protein: A cross-sectional population-based study
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Mounting evidence highlights specific forms of psychological stress as risk factors for ill health. Particularly strong evidence indicates that childhood adversity and adulthood trauma exposure increase risk for physical and psychiatric disorders, and there is emerging evidence that inflammation may play a key role in these relationships. In a population-based sample from the Health and Retirement Study (n=11,198, mean age 69 ± 10), we examine whether childhood adversity, adulthood trauma, and the interaction between them are associated with elevated levels of the systemic inflammatory marker high sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP). All models were adjusted for age, gender, race, education, and year of data collection, as well as other possible confounds in follow-up sensitivity analyses. In our sample, 67% of individuals had experienced at least one traumatic event during adulthood, and those with childhood adversity were almost three times as likely to have experienced trauma as an adult. Childhood adversities and adulthood traumas were independently associated with elevated levels of hsCRP (β=0.03, p=0.01 and β=0.05, p<0.001, respectively). Those who had experienced both types of stress had higher levels of hsCRP than those with adulthood trauma alone, Estimate=-0.06, 95% CI [-0.003, -0.12], p=0.04, but not compared to those with childhood adversity alone, Estimate=-0.06, 95% CI [0.03, -0.16], p=0.19. There was no interaction between childhood and adulthood trauma exposure. To our knowledge, this is the first study to examine adulthood trauma exposure and inflammation in a large population-based sample, and the first to explore the interaction of childhood adversity and adulthood trauma with inflammation. Our study demonstrates the prevalence of trauma-related inflammation in the general population and suggests that childhood adversity and adulthood trauma are independently associated with elevated inflammation.
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Individuals exposed to childhood maltreatment show heightened levels of CRP in adulthood.
“Indeed, individuals who were exposed to childhood maltreatment, as well as those exposed to difficult family and socio-economic circumstances in childhood (Taylor et al, 2006), show heightened levels of CRP in adulthood (Bertone-Johnson et al, 2012;Danese et al, 2007;Lin et al, 2016;Matthews et al, 2014;Rooks et al, 2012;Tietjen et al, 2012).”
From Inflammation in Fear- and Anxiety-Based Disorders: PTSD, GAD, and Beyond (2017) · cites this paper as Lin et al, 2016
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References 80 · Cited by 63
- Authors
- Lin, J. E., Neylan, T. C., Epel, E., & O’Donovan, A.
- Affiliations
- San Francisco VA Medical Center (US)
- University of California, San Francisco (US)
- Corresponding author
- Lin, Joy E.
- O’Donovan, Aoife
- Venue
- Brain, Behavior, and Immunity
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2016-03
- Volume
- 53
- Pages
- 105-112
- ISSN
- 0889-1591 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC5189980
- OpenAlex
- W2280099719
- Cited by
- 63
- References
- 80
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 11 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 1
- FWCI
- 4.55
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Brain Behavior and Immunity (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute on Aging (U01AG009740)
- National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences
- University of California, San Francisco (KL2 TR000143)
- UCSF
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child Abuse and Trauma
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Behavioral Neuroscience › Stress Responses and Cortisol
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Research
- Keywords
- childhood adversity, C-reactive protein, systemic inflammation, psychological stress, trauma exposure, older adults, interaction effects, Health and Retirement Study
- MeSH terms
- Trauma and Stressor Related Disorders, Aged, Mental Disorders, C-Reactive Protein, Cross-Sectional Studies, Female, Humans, Inflammation, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Middle Aged, Risk Factors, Socioeconomic Factors, Stress, Psychological, United States, Biomarkers, Prevalence
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