Dementias Platform UK, Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Warneford Hospital, Oxford, OX3 7JX, UK.
Department of Experimental and Theoretical Neuroscience, Transylvanian Institute of Neuroscience, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
BMC Public Health. 2024 Nov 27;24(1):3294. doi: 10.1186/s12889-024-20768-3.
Early life adversity has been shown to have long-lasting detrimental effects on a variety of biopsychosocial outcomes. Early adversity and its consequences may directly or indirectly affect cognitive aging and increase the risk of developing dementia in older age. Investigating the biopsychosocial outcomes associated with early adverse experiences is essential to inform health policies and promote healthy cognitive development across the life course.
The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of early adversity (i.e., abuse and deprivation) on selected outcomes (i.e., physical and mental health, lifestyle, and cognition) in two UK cohorts (the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA), N = 12,653, Mdn = 66, SD = 9.58; UK Biobank, N = 502,360, Mdn = 58, SD = 8.09). In both cohorts, adversities were self-reported retrospectively, and only those adversity types assessed in both cohorts were utilized. A post-hoc analysis was performed to examine the role of education as a mediator of the association between early adversity and the selected outcomes.
Most of the results show that early adversity is negatively associated with health (both physical and mental), lifestyle, and cognition while also highlighting the important mediating role of education. However, differences exist according to the specific adversity experienced and the cohort studied.
The results found bring into attention the complex associations between early adversity and multiple later life outcomes, and suggest that various mechanisms might be at play. Furthermore, the findings highlight the importance of multi-cohort comparisons for the generalization of the results.
早期生活逆境已被证明对多种生物心理社会结果产生持久的不利影响。早期逆境及其后果可能直接或间接地影响认知衰老，并增加老年时患痴呆症的风险。研究与早期不良经历相关的生物心理社会结果对于告知卫生政策和促进整个生命周期的健康认知发展至关重要。
本研究旨在探讨早期逆境（即虐待和剥夺）对两个英国队列（英国老龄化纵向研究（ELSA），N=12653，Mdn=66，SD=9.58；英国生物银行，N=502360，Mdn=58，SD=8.09）中选定结果（即身心健康、生活方式和认知）的影响。在两个队列中，逆境都是通过回顾性自我报告评估的，仅使用在两个队列中都评估过的逆境类型。进行了一项事后分析，以检验教育作为早期逆境与所选结果之间关联的中介作用。
大多数结果表明，早期逆境与健康（身体和心理健康）、生活方式和认知呈负相关，同时突出了教育的重要中介作用。然而，根据所经历的特定逆境和研究的队列，存在差异。
研究结果引起了人们对早期逆境与多种晚年生活结果之间复杂关联的关注，并表明可能存在各种机制在起作用。此外，研究结果强调了多队列比较对于结果推广的重要性。
