Childhood Adversity Linked to Higher Risk of Early Death

Traumatic childhood experiences may not just impact mental health, they may also impact physical health. Scientists have discovered that these experiences have been linked to an increased risk of early death.

In order to learn a little bit more about how a person's childhood can impact their life expectancy, the researchers compared premature death rates among more than 15,000 people to their experiences of adversity at ages 7, 11 and 16. This included spending time in care, suffering from neglect, parental separation or having a family member in prison.

In the end, the researchers found that the likelihood women would die before the age of 50 increased with the amount of adversity they had suffered during childhood. In fact, women who had suffered one negative experience by the age of 16 were 55 percent more likely to die before the age of 50 than those who had not faced adversity. This jumped for women who had two or more experiences to an 80 percent risk.

Men, though, had a different outcome. It turned out that they were less impacted by adversity; those who had suffered two or more traumatic experiences in childhood were only 57 percent more likely to die by the age they were 50.

"This work on early psychological trauma and premature death adds a whole new dimension to public health," said Mel Bartley, one of the researchers, in a news release. "It shows that if we are going to ensure better health in the population the work needs to begin early in life to support children experiencing severe adversities. Many people have suspected this but until now we have not had such high quality evidence from such a large cohort of people."

So what were the causes of death? Some of them were related to mental stress, such as suicide or addiction to alcohol or drugs. However, the findings also suggest that children who suffer severe stress may experience imbalances in their hormone and immune systems that impact their physical development and later health.

The findings are important for understanding how best to help children in difficult situations. In particular, it shows how crucial childhood is to a person's development.

The findings are published in the journal BMC Public Health.