Early Childhood Adversity and Later Hypertension: Data from the World Mental Health Survey
Open accessAbstract
Background: Although many studies have indicated that psychosocial factors contribute to hypertension, and that early childhood adversity is associated with long-term adverse mental and physical health sequelae, the association between early adversity and later hypertension is not well studied. Method: Data from 10 countries participating in the World Health Organization (WHO) World Mental Health (WHM) Surveys (N = 18,630) were analyzed to assess the relationship between childhood adversity and adult-onset hypertension, as ascertained by self-report. The potentially mediating effect of early-onset depression-anxiety disorders, as assessed by the WHM Survey version of the International Diagnostic Interview (WMH-CIDI), on the relationship between early adversity and hypertension was also examined. Results: Two or more early childhood adversities, as well as early-onset depression-anxiety, were significantly associated with hypertension. A range of specific childhood adversities, as well as early-onset social phobia and panic/agoraphobia, were significantly associated with hypertension. In multivariate analyses, the presence of 3 or more childhood adversities was associated with hypertension, even when early-onset depression-anxiety or current depression-anxiety was included in the model. Conclusions: Although caution is required in the interpretation of selfreport data on adult-onset hypertension, the results of this study further strengthen the evidence base regarding the role of psychosocial factors in the pathogenesis of hypertension.
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ELS/CT is associated with adverse physical health, particularly cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, neuromusculoskeletal, pulmonary, inflammatory, and metabolic diseases, chronic pain syndromes, frequency of medical consultations, and number of medical diagnoses.
“Furthermore, several larger-scale studies and meta-analyses also suggest a close association of ELS/CT with adverse physical health and in particular with cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, neuromusculoskeletal, pulmonary, inflammatory, and metabolic diseases, chronic pain syndromes, frequency of medical consultations, as well as number of medical diagnoses (24, 36–42).”
From Developmental Trajectories of Early Life Stress and Trauma: A Narrative Review on Neurobiological Aspects Beyond Stress System Dysregulation (2019) · cites this paper as [41]
Table 3 (DISCUSSION; page not provided) reports an association between multiple childhood adversities and later hypertension, supporting the cardiovascular portion of the claim. The paper does not establish the listed gastrointestinal, neuromusculoskeletal, pulmonary, inflammatory, or metabolic diseases, chronic pain, medical-consultation frequency, or number of diagnoses. (LLM, conf=0.88)
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References 22 · Cited by 118
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- Authors
- Stein, D. J., Scott, K., Haro Abad, J. M., Aguilar-Gaxiola, S., Alonso, J., Angermeyer, M., Demytteneare, K., de Girolamo, G., Iwata, N., Posada-Villa, J., Kovess, V., Lara, C., Ormel, J., Kessler, R. C., & Von Korff, M.
- Affiliations
- University of Cape Town (ZA)
- Department of Psychological Medicine Wellington School of Medicine and Health Sciences Otago University Wellington, New Zealand
- Sant Joan de Déu-SSM Fundació Sant Joan de Déu Sant Boi de Llobregat Barcelona, Spain
- Center for Reducing Health Disparities Sacramento, CA, USA
- Municipal Institute for Medical Research (ES)
- Center for Public Mental Health Gösing, Austria
- Universitair Ziekenhuis Leuven (BE)
- IRCCS Centro S. Giovanni di Dio-Fatebenefratelli Brescia, Italy
- Hiroshima International University (JP)
- Medico Psiquiatra U. Javerina Centro Medico de la Sabana Bogota, Colombia
- Fondation MGEN pour la Sante Publique Paris, France
- National Institute of Psychiatry Puebla, Mexico
- University Medical Center Groningen (NL)
- Harvard University (US)
- Group Health Center for Health Studies Seattle, WA, USA
- Corresponding author
- Stein, Dan J.
- Venue
- Annals of Clinical Psychiatry
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2010-02
- Volume
- 22
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 19-28
- ISSN
- 1040-1237 (ISSN-L)
- 1547-3325
- PMC
- PMC3486699
- OpenAlex
- W4414130671
- Cited by
- 118
- References
- 22
- Citations by year
- 2025: 8 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 12 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 14 · 2015: 11 · 2014: 9 · 2013: 11 · 2012: 4
- FWCI
- 5.64
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Annals of Clinical Psychiatry (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Dipòsit Digital de la Universitat de Barcelona (Universitat de Barcelona) (submittedVersion)
- University of Groningen research database (University of Groningen / Centre for Information Technology) (submittedVersion)
- RECERCAT (Consorci de Serveis Universitaris de Catalunya) (submittedVersion, public-domain)
- PubMed
- Funders
- European Commission
- National Institutes of Health (5r13mh066849-04, 5r01mh069864-04, 5r01mh070884-05)
- Pan American Health Organization
- Instituto de Salud Carlos III
- National Institute of Mental Health (U01MH060220)
- National Institute on Drug Abuse (K05DA015799, R01DA016558)
- Fogarty International Center (R03TW006481)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child Abuse and Trauma
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine › Blood Pressure and Hypertension Studies
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
- Keywords
- early childhood adversity, hypertension, social anxiety disorder, panic disorder, agoraphobia, psychosocial risk factors, mediation, self-reported hypertension, World Mental Health Surveys
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Anxiety Disorders, Child, Child Abuse, Cross-Sectional Studies, Depressive Disorder, Female, Health Surveys, Humans, Hypertension, Life Change Events, Male, Mental Health, Middle Aged, Phobic Disorders, Risk Factors, Self Disclosure, Stress, Psychological, Global Health, Comorbidity, Causality, Panic Disorder, Age of Onset, Adult Survivors of Child Abuse, Young Adult
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