Adverse childhood experiences and physiological wear-and-tear in midlife: Findings from the 1958 British birth cohort
Top Cited Papers
- 2 February 2015
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
- Vol. 112 (7), 201417325-E746
- https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1417325112
Abstract
Allostatic load (AL) is a measure of overall physiological wear-and-tear over the life course, which could partially be the consequence of early life exposures. AL could allow a better understanding of the potential biological pathways playing a role in the construction of the social gradient in adult health. To explore the biological embedding hypothesis, we examined whether adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are associated with elevated AL in midlife. We used imputed data on 3,782 women and 3,753 men of the National Child Development Study in Britain followed up seven times. ACEs were measured using prospective data collected at ages 7, 11, and 16. AL was operationalized using data from the biomedical survey collected at age 44 on 14 parameters representing four biological systems. We examined the role of adult health behaviors, body mass index (BMI), and socioeconomic status as potential mediators using a path analysis. ACEs were associated with higher AL for both men and women after adjustment for early life factors and childhood pathologies. The path analysis showed that the association between ACEs and AL was largely explained by early adult factors at age 23 and 33. For men, the total mediated effect was 59% (for two or more ACEs) via health behaviors, education level, and wealth. For women, the mediated effect represented 76% (for two or more ACEs) via smoking, BMI, education level, and wealth. Our results indicate that early psychosocial stress has an indirect lasting impact on physiological wear-and-tear via health behaviors, BMI, and socioeconomic factors in adulthood.Keywords
Funding Information
- Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR-12-DSSA-0004)
This publication has 55 references indexed in Scilit:
- Childhood adversity as a risk for cancer: findings from the 1958 British birth cohort studyBMC Public Health, 2013
- Adverse childhood experiences and premature all-cause mortalityEuropean Journal of Epidemiology, 2013
- Placental contribution to the origins of sexual dimorphism in health and diseases: sex chromosomes and epigeneticsBiology of Sex Differences, 2013
- Putting the concept of biological embedding in historical perspectiveProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2012
- Protective Factors for Adults From Low-Childhood Socioeconomic CircumstancesPsychosomatic Medicine, 2012
- Social and Material Adversity from Adolescence to Adulthood and Allostatic Load in Middle-Aged Women and Men: Results from the Northern Swedish CohortAnnals of Behavioral Medicine, 2011
- Association of Diurnal Patterns in Salivary Cortisol with All-Cause and Cardiovascular Mortality: Findings from the Whitehall II StudyJournal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 2011
- Sex- and Diet-Specific Changes of Imprinted Gene Expression and DNA Methylation in Mouse Placenta under a High-Fat DietPLOS ONE, 2010
- Closing the gap in a generation: health equity through action on the social determinants of healthThe Lancet, 2008
- Health promotion from the perspective of social cognitive theoryPsychology & Health, 1998