Paltzer Jason, Kwon Elizabeth, Okafor Chukwuemeka N, Padgett R Noah, Carter Erik W, Benfer Jessica, VanderWeele Tyler J, Johnson Byron R
The Meros Center, Wisconsin Lutheran College, Milwaukee, WI, USA.
Department of Public Health, Baylor University, Waco, TX, USA.
BMC Glob Public Health. 2025 Aug 13;3(1):70. doi: 10.1186/s44263-025-00188-0.
Preventing health problems that limit access to age-appropriate opportunities and relationships (health limitations) is critical to promoting human flourishing. Understanding childhood correlates of health limitations provides a vantage point for prevention efforts. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine the childhood predictors of health limitations across diverse countries. An individual's self-reported health limitations in adulthood are likely to vary by country, reflecting the influence of diverse sociocultural, economic, religious, and health contexts that characterize each nation.
We used data from the Global Flourishing Study, an ongoing 5-year longitudinal study of human flourishing among 202,898 individuals across 22 countries within nationally representative sampling. A Poisson regression model was fit within each country by regressing health problems in adulthood on a set of childhood predictors. We conducted random effects meta-analyses of the regression coefficients to estimate proportions of effects across countries. Our exploratory analysis highlights key early-life experiences, personal attributes, and familial or social circumstances that are associated with self-reported health limitations in adulthood.
Early predictors of self-reported health limitations in adulthood vary by country, reflecting the influence of diverse sociocultural, economic, religious, and health contexts that characterize each nation. Across all countries, childhood abuse, growing up feeling like an outsider in one's family, and self-rated health growing up were associated with a greater risk of having a health limitation as an adult.
We found common factors among countries and some variations in childhood predictors across the 22 countries. This cross-national study illuminates the role of broader societal factors in shaping the relationship between childhood experiences and health limitations as adults.
预防那些限制人们获得适合其年龄的机会和人际关系的健康问题（健康限制）对于促进人类福祉至关重要。了解与健康限制相关的童年因素为预防工作提供了一个有利视角。因此，本研究的目的是考察不同国家中健康限制的童年预测因素。一个人成年后自我报告的健康限制可能因国家而异，这反映了每个国家不同的社会文化、经济、宗教和健康背景的影响。
我们使用了全球福祉研究的数据，这是一项正在进行的为期5年的纵向研究，对22个国家具有全国代表性样本中的202,898个人的人类福祉进行研究。通过将成年后的健康问题回归到一组童年预测因素上，在每个国家拟合泊松回归模型。我们对回归系数进行随机效应荟萃分析，以估计各国效应的比例。我们的探索性分析突出了与成年后自我报告的健康限制相关的关键早期生活经历、个人属性以及家庭或社会环境。
成年后自我报告的健康限制的早期预测因素因国家而异，反映了每个国家不同的社会文化、经济、宗教和健康背景的影响。在所有国家中，童年期受虐待、在家庭中感觉像局外人以及成长过程中的自评健康状况与成年后出现健康限制的风险增加有关。
我们在各国之间发现了共同因素，并且在这22个国家的童年预测因素中存在一些差异。这项跨国研究阐明了更广泛的社会因素在塑造童年经历与成年后健康限制之间关系方面的作用。
