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Early life adversity increases the salience of later life stress: an investigation of interactive effects in the PSID

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 June 2019

Katherine Saxton  and
Laura Chyu
Katherine Saxton*
Affiliation:
Department of Biology and Public Health Program, Santa Clara University, 500 El Camino Real, Santa Clara, CA 95053, USA
Laura Chyu
Affiliation:
Population Health Sciences Department, School of Nursing and Health Professions, University of San Francisco, 2130 Fulton Street, San Francisco, CA 94117, USA
*
Address for correspondence: Katherine Saxton, Department of Biology and Public Health Program, Santa Clara University, 500 El Camino Real, Santa Clara, CA 95053, USA. Email: ksaxton@scu.edu
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Abstract

A large body of evidence has shown that stress throughout life is associated with health trajectories, but the combination of adverse experiences at different stages of the life course is not yet well understood. This study examines the interactions between childhood adversity, adulthood adversity, and adult physical and mental health. Using data from The Childhood Retrospective Circumstances Study (CRCS) supplement to the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), we created indices of early life adversity (EAI) and adult adversity (AAI). We used logistic regression to examine the effects of EAI and AAI, adjusting for age, sex, race/ethnicity, health behaviors, and childhood health as covariates in all models. We repeated this analysis for the outcomes of fair/poor health, two or more chronic conditions, and psychological distress in adulthood. For all the three outcomes, our findings suggest increasing salience of adult adversity among those who experienced higher levels of early adversity. Individuals with high EAI and high AAI exhibited the highest odds of fair/poor health (OR = 5.71), chronic conditions (OR = 3.06), and psychological distress (OR = 13.08) compared to those with low EAI and low AAI. These findings are consistent with the accumulation of risk or dual risk model of stress and health. Adversity in childhood amplifies the health risks associated with stress in adulthood for multiple health outcomes.

Keywords

Early life adversitylife coursestressdual riskaccumulation of risk
Type
Original Article
Information
Journal of Developmental Origins of Health and Disease , Volume 11 , Issue 1 , February 2020 , pp. 25 - 36
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press and the International Society for Developmental Origins of Health and Disease 2019 

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Footnotes

*

These authors contributed equally to this manuscript.

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