Difficult Childhood May Increase Adult Health Risk

Individuals who experience psychological or social adversity in childhood may have lasting physical and emotional abnormalities that may help explain why they develop more age-related diseases in adulthood, according to a report in the December issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

Andrea Danese, MD, of King’s College in London, studied 1,037 members of the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study, a long-term investigation of New Zealand residents born between April 1972 and March 1973. During the first 10 years of life, participants were assessed for exposure to socioeconomic disadvantage, maltreatment, and social isolation.

Maltreatment includes physical, sexual, and psychological abuse, as well as neglect. This is associated with a number of negative outcomes for children, including poor performance in school, delayed cognition and emotional disorders, according to the Child Welfare Information Gateway.

The participants were followed up at age 32 and evaluated for the presence of risk factors for age-related diseases, such as depression, high inflammation levels as measured by C-reactive protein, and symptoms of the metabolic syndrome, which include high blood pressure, dyslipidemia, and obesity. Those who had experienced adverse events in childhood were at a higher risk of developing the disease states.

The researchers estimated that 31.6 percent of the cases of depression, 13 percent of the cases of elevated inflammation and 32.2 percent of cases with metabolic syndrome risk factors could be attributed to adverse childhood experiences.

Read more online at: http://www.emaxhealth.com/1506/20/34716/difficult-childhood-may-increase-adult-disease-risk.html