Childhood Adversities and Adult Cardiometabolic Health: Does the Quantity, Timing, and Type of Adversity Matter?

“The BIC penalizes overspecified models and is preferable over a likelihood ratio χ2 test when the models to be compared are nonnested (Raftery, 1995).”

“Certain periods of biopsychosocial development may be “sensitive,” such that exposures that disrupt developmental processes during these periods may be especially difficult to ameliorate in adulthood (Ben-Shlomo & Kuh, 2002; Ferraro & Shippee, 2009).”

“However, recent studies find that memories of specific childhood experiences are stable and fairly accurate (Hardt & Rutter, 2004; Yancura & Aldwin, 2009).”

“However, as Green et al. (2010) noted, assessing a single exposure may overestimate its effect on adult health because exposures tend to cluster.”

“Analyses that combine men and women also adjust for gender.”

“In a sample of nearly 14,000 adults who completed a standardized medical evaluation at a large Health Maintenance Organization (HMO), Felitti et al. (1998) found that more than one half (52”

“Certain periods of biopsychosocial development may be “sensitive,” such that exposures that disrupt developmental processes during these periods may be especially difficult to ameliorate in adulthood (Ben-Shlomo & Kuh, 2002; Ferraro & Shippee, 2009).”

“This “direct” mechanism is often associated with the fetal origins hypothesis, which proposes that prenatal environments have enduring consequences for cardiovascular and metabolic systems (Barker, 1997).”

“While this provides a more holistic view of the childhood environment (e.g., H. A. Turner, Finkelhor, & Ormrod, 2006; R. J. Turner & Lloyd, 1995), researchers must then decide whether to specify the count as a linear or nonlinear term.”

“In general, these studies find that adverse experiences in childhood, such as parental abuse and sibling death, have enduring consequences for adult health net of many confounders (see reviews in Danese & Tan, 2014; Slopen, Koenen, & Kubzansky, 2012).”

“However, as Green et al. (2010) noted, assessing a single exposure may overestimate its effect on adult health because exposures tend to cluster.”

“Its importance in life-course studies stems partly from its relatively early completion in the life span—it generally precedes the attainment of other socioeconomic resources such as occupation and income—and its role in shaping psychosocial well-being and health behaviors (Mirowsky & Ross, 1998).”

“…Americans and less educated individuals, but this is consistent with the characteristics of survey nonrespondents in general and is not unique to MIDUS (e.g., Fitzgerald, Gottschalk, & Moffitt, 1998; Kapteyn, Michaud, Smith, & van Soest, 2006; Lindenberger et al., 1999; Radler & Ryff, 2010).”

“Similarly, Thomas, Hyppönen, and Power (2008) found that while physical abuse in childhood elevated the risk of obesity and diabetes among U.K. adults, family problems in childhood (e.g., parental separation) did not.”

“However, as several scholars have noted (e.g., Fisher et al., 2010; Green et al., 2010; Morton et al., 2012; Schilling et al., 2008), there has been considerably less attention given to determining how to best operationalize childhood experiences.”

“Among adults in the U.S. Health and Retirement Study, having low-educated parents was more consequential for women than for men in terms of functional limitations (Montez, 2013) and active life expectancy (Montez & Hayward, 2014).”

“For women, physical/sexual abuse in childhood was also a particularly strong predictor of heart disease, consistent with other studies (Midei, Matthews, Chang, & Bromberger, 2013; Rich-Edwards et al., 2012).”

“In particular, as noted by several scholars (e.g., Fisher et al., 2010; Green et al., 2010; Morton, Schafer, & Ferraro, 2012; Schilling, Aseltine, & Gore, 2008), insufficient attention has been given to determining how to best operationalize adverse exposures.”

“For example, Slopen et al. (2010) found that an index of early-life adversity (including events such as dropping out or being expelled from school, parental unemployment, and parental substance abuse) was associated with biomarkers of inflammation among Black adults in MIDUS, and that several of…”

“adults, parental home ownership (a proxy for socioeconomic conditions and pathogen exposure) was associated with enhanced immune function if the ownership occurred during infancy but not between ages 15 and 18 (Cohen et al., 2004).”

“Obesity, diabetes, and heart attack risk appear more closely tied to early-life socioeconomic conditions among women than men (HamilLuker & O’Rand, 2007; Heraclides et al., 2008; Khlat, Jusot, & Ville, 2009; Lehman et al., 2005; Maty et al., 2008).”

“, parental death, being sent away from home) during ages 6 to 11, but not ages 0 to 5 or 12 to 15, was associated with high cortisol levels (Bosch et al., 2012).”

“, 2014) and other recent MIDUS work found consistent reports of physical abuse within twin pairs (Friedman et al., 2015), both of which provide further evidence that recall of trauma is quite reliable.”

“…and indicators of adult cardiometabolic health, including cardiovascular disease (see Galobardes, Davey Smith, & Lynch, 2006), heart attack risk (Hamil-Luker & O’Rand, 2007), obesity (Heraclides, Witte, & Brunner, 2008), diabetes (Maty, Lynch, Raghunathan, & Kaplan, 2008), and metabolic…”

“In addition, a recent study comparing recall of childhood abuse reported across the two MIDUS waves found a strong correlation (C. L. Lee et al., 2014) and other recent MIDUS work found consistent reports of physical abuse within twin pairs (Friedman et al., 2015), both of which provide further…”

“Our findings largely corroborate the handful of studies commenting on functional form (e.g., Montez & Hayward, 2014; Morton et al., 2012; R. J. Turner & Lloyd, 1995).”

“However, recent studies find that memories of specific childhood experiences are stable and fairly accurate (Hardt & Rutter, 2004; Yancura & Aldwin, 2009).”

“Obesity, diabetes, and heart attack risk appear more closely tied to early-life socioeconomic conditions among women than men (HamilLuker & O’Rand, 2007; Heraclides et al., 2008; Khlat, Jusot, & Ville, 2009; Lehman et al., 2005; Maty et al., 2008).”

“…55 to 65 years who experienced a major infectious disease (e.g., pneumonia) in childhood had 2.5 times the odds of cancer, 1.7 times the odds of cardiovascular conditions, 4.9 times the odds of lung conditions, and 1.8 times the odds of arthritis/rheumatism, net of adult socioeconomic…”

“Some hypotheses include biological sex differences (Karlamangla et al., 2005), gender differences in opportunities, such as education and employment, for individuals who have historically had to escape early adversity through upward mobility (HamilLuker & O’Rand, 2007), gendered physical activity…”

“Childhood emotional abuse predicted worse self-rated health among women but not men when controlling for adult circumstances (Irving & Ferraro, 2006).”

“mechanism which is especially important is educational attainment (Kestilä et al., 2005; Mirowsky & Ross, 1998; Montez & Hayward, 2014).”

“Nonetheless, evidence from disciplines such as psychology and medicine suggests that timing may matter.”

“…experienced at least one type of adverse event, a (cumulative) linear measure capturing the total number of adverse events experienced, and a categorical measure of the total number of events, ranging from 0 to 5 or more (for a similar approach, see Fisher et al., 2010; Non et al., 2014).”

“For example, a study using data from MIDUS found that exposure to physical violence in childhood diminished individuals’ sense of personal control, and strained family relationships in adulthood, which in turn predicted poorer mental and physical health (Shaw & Krause, 2002).”

“…Americans and less educated individuals, but this is consistent with the characteristics of survey nonrespondents in general and is not unique to MIDUS (e.g., Fitzgerald, Gottschalk, & Moffitt, 1998; Kapteyn, Michaud, Smith, & van Soest, 2006; Lindenberger et al., 1999; Radler & Ryff, 2010).”

“A commonly used approach, which accounts for such clustering, is to create a count of exposures.”

“As Ferraro (2011) noted, while sociologists generally recognize the importance of certain periods in the life course for shaping health, they are skeptical that child development can be disaggregated into discrete stages.”

“Obesity, diabetes, and heart attack risk appear more closely tied to early-life socioeconomic conditions among women than men (HamilLuker & O’Rand, 2007; Heraclides et al., 2008; Khlat, Jusot, & Ville, 2009; Lehman et al., 2005; Maty et al., 2008).”

“A study of German adults found that parental unemployment and parental separation, but not death or severe disease in the family, predicted clinical precursors to cardiovascular disease (Herberth et al., 2008).”

“Health and Retirement Study, having low-educated parents was more consequential for women than for men in terms of functional limitations (Montez, 2013) and active life expectancy (Montez & Hayward, 2014).”

“For instance, Krause (1993) found that children who experienced parental death achieved lower levels of education and, in turn, experienced greater financial strain in adulthood and a diminished sense of personal control.”

“Obesity risk is also more strongly tied to early-life nutritional deprivation among women than men in quasiexperimental studies (Robinson, 2012).”