Temperament in childhood predicts body mass in adulthood: the Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study

The effect of pre-employment factors on job control, job strain and psychological distress: a 31-year longitudinal study

This study examined the role of pre-employment factors, such as maternal antenatal depression, low birth weight, childhood socioeconomic position, early adolescence health risk behaviours and academic performance, in the relationship between work characteristics (low job control and high job demands, or job strain) and psychological distress at age 31. The data of 2062 women and 2231 men was derived from the prospective unselected population-based Northern Finland 1966 Birth Cohort study. Results of linear regression models showed that being female, father's low socioeconomic position, and poor academic achievement in adolescence were linked to low control and high job strain jobs at age 31, and that low control and high job strain were associated with psychological distress at age 31. Although having lower school grades, high absence rate from school, and moderate alcohol consumption at age 14 were significant predictors of psychological distress at age 31, the associations between job control, job strain and psychological distress remained after controlling for these and other pre-employment effects. As such, pre-employment factors do seem to link people to risky work environments, which in turn seem to relate strongly to psychological distress. However, the relationship between pre-employment factors and later psychological distress in adulthood is not completely explained by job environment.

Childhood hyperactivity as a predictor of carotid artery intima media thickness over a period of 21 years: the cardiovascular risk in young Finns study

OBJECTIVE

We investigated whether childhood temperament was able to predict carotid artery intima media thickness (IMT) and/or its risk factors in adulthood 21 years later.

METHODS

The subjects were the three youngest age cohorts of the population-based sample of the Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns study, i.e., those who were aged 3 to 9 years (n = 708) at the baseline. IMT was assessed by ultrasound, and temperament in terms of negative emotionality, hyperactivity, and sociability (following Buss and Plomin). In addition, the levels of traditional risk factors for atherosclerosis were measured in both childhood and adulthood.

RESULTS

Childhood temperament was found to predict adulthood risk factors such as smoking in both genders and body mass index (BMI), systolic blood pressure (SBP), and educational level in women. In women, childhood hyperactivity predicted adulthood IMT after adjustment for childhood and adulthood risk factors for atherosclerosis.

CONCLUSION

These findings suggest that temperament may contribute to the development of IMT in two ways: indirectly through risk factors in both genders and in women directly through a mechanism that is not considered in the present study. There were no significant gender-related differences in temperament, but it seemed to play different roles in different genders. Hyperactivity was a greater risk for girls than for boys.

Risk of Obesity in Relation to Physical Activity Tracking from Youth to Adulthood

PURPOSE

Maintaining a high level of physical activity throughout one's lifetime may decrease the risk of obesity. We evaluated how physical activity patterns from youths (9-18 yr) to adulthood are associated with body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) in a population of young adults.

METHODS

As part of the longitudinal Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study, we assessed physical activity over a 21-yr follow-up in a cohort of 1319 subjects. Physical activity was measured using a questionnaire completed in conjunction with a medical examination.

RESULTS

During the follow-up, 33.1% of men and 32.0% of women were classified as persistently active, and 11.5% of men and 7.4% of women as persistently inactive. Both decreasingly active and persistently inactive subjects were more likely to be obese as adults compared with persistently active subjects. In women, being decreasingly active from youth to adulthood compared with being persistently active was independently associated with the risk of being overweight (BMI = 25.0-29.9 kg.m(-2), odds ratio (OR) = 2.35, confidence interval (CI) = 1.16-4.78), obese (BMI > or = 30.0 kg.m(-2), OR = 2.72, CI = 1.04-7.09), mildly abdominally obese (WC = 800-879 mm, OR = 2.21, CI = 1.01-4.84), and severely abdominally obese (WC > or = 880 mm, OR = 2.19, CI = 1.03-4.67), after adjustment for several variables including childhood fatness. In men, decreasing physical activity during their lifetime was associated with mild (WC = 940-1019 mm, odds ratio (OR) = 1.78, CI = 1.00-3.19) and severe (WC > or = 1020 mm, OR = 2.47, CI = 1.27-4.78) abdominal obesity in unadjusted analyses, but these two associations disappeared after adjustment for confounding variables (OR = 1.51, CI = 0.72-3.17 and OR = 1.62, CI 0.66-4.02, respectively). In men, changes in physical activity were not associated with obesity or overweight as defined by cut-points of BMI.

CONCLUSIONS

Maintaining a high level of physical activity from youth to adulthood is independently associated with lower risk of abdominal obesity in among women, but not men. These findings suggest that changes in physical activity patterns during the lifetime may contribute to the development of abdominal obesity in women.