CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 17Early Childhood Education and DevelopmentChild and Adolescent HealthSchool Health and Nursing Education

Does attendance at preschool affect adult health? A systematic review

D'Onise, K., McDermott, R.A., Lynch, J.W.·2010·Public Health
DOI 10.1016/j.puhe.2010.05.004
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

Background Early child development interventions can set children on positive social and educational trajectories. The aim of this review was to examine the evidence for the adult health impacts of centre-based preschool interventions for preschoolers.Methods Medline, Embase, ERIC, Psych Info, Sociological Abstracts, the Cochrane Library, C2-SPECTR and the Head Start database were searched (1980-2008), and reference lists were searched for articles missed by the electronic search.Results The 12 eligible articles reviewed reported multi-faceted interventions and involved disadvantaged populations in all but one study. Limitations included a restricted range of health outcomes, reliance on self-report measures (11 studies), small sample sizes (nine studies with <100 in each arm) and a relatively young adult age at follow-up. There were positive intervention effects across the majority of behavioural outcomes, and a suggestion of a reduction in symptoms of depression. Non-communicable disease outcomes (e.g. diabetes mellitus) tended to have adverse or near-zero effect estimates.Conclusions The reviewed articles provide some support for the role of early childhood interventions to improve health behaviours but not chronic disease outcomes. Population health researchers should become more involved in the evaluation of preschool interventions as there is great potential for broad population health benefit.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/j.puhe.2010.05.004

Cites

39 of 39 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • There is some evidence that visits in the prenatal period or during infancy to provide mothers with parenting skills, or offering education services to children growing up in disadvantaged communities, can help prevent substance use later in life, but additional studies are needed before these interventions can be considered evidence-based.

    “There is also some evidence that visits in the prenatal period or during infancy to provide mothers with parenting skills 281 , or offering education services to children growing up in disadvantaged communities 282 , can help prevent substance use later in life, but additional studies are needed before these interventions can be considered evidence- based.”

    From Substance use disorders: a comprehensive update of classification, epidemiology, neurobiology, clinical aspects, treatment and prevention (2023) · cites this paper as [282]

  • Early childhood development interventions including stimulation in early childhood, preschool level interventions, and ECD consultations have shown to be effective in improving health behaviors, conduct problems, and social skills.

    “Evidence suggests that early childhood development (ECD) interventions including stimulation in early childhood, preschool level interventions, and ECD consultations have shown to be effective in improving health behaviors, conduct problems, and social skills and are also low-cost interventions delivered in home and at school [63], [64], [65], [66], [67].”

    From Interventions for Adolescent Mental Health: An Overview of Systematic Reviews (2016) · cites this paper as [65]

  • Early childhood development interventions are low-cost interventions delivered in home and at school.

    “Evidence suggests that early childhood development (ECD) interventions including stimulation in early childhood, preschool level interventions, and ECD consultations have shown to be effective in improving health behaviors, conduct problems, and social skills and are also low-cost interventions delivered in home and at school [63], [64], [65], [66], [67].”

    From Interventions for Adolescent Mental Health: An Overview of Systematic Reviews (2016) · cites this paper as [65]

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
D'Onise, K., McDermott, R. A., & Lynch, J. W.
Affiliations
University of South Australia (AU)
ORCID
Venue
Public Health
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2010-09
Volume
124
Issue
9
Pages
500-511
ISSN
0033-3506 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1016/j.puhe.2010.05.004
OpenAlex
W2166407950
Cited by
17
References
39
Citations by year
2026: 1 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 2 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 1 · 2016: 1 · 2015: 1 · 2014: 1 · 2012: 2
FWCI
1.32
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
Locations
  • Public Health (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • ResearchOnline - JCU (James Cook University) (submittedVersion)
  • Adelaide Research & Scholarship (AR&S) (University of Adelaide) (submittedVersion)
  • Bristol Research (University of Bristol) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • National Health and Medical Research Council
  • National Heart Foundation of Australia
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Education › Early Childhood Education and Development
  • Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Child and Adolescent Health
  • Health Sciences › Health Professions › Speech and Hearing › School Health and Nursing Education
Keywords
preschool attendance, early childhood intervention, adult health outcomes, health behavior, depressive symptoms, non-communicable diseases, diabetes mellitus, disadvantaged children, population health
MeSH terms
Adolescent, Adult, Child, Child, Preschool, Chronic Disease, Health Services, Health Status, Humans, Infant, Mental Health, Smoking, Health Behavior, Exercise, Early Intervention, Educational, Substance-Related Disorders, Health Status Disparities

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review