Childhood cognitive ability and adult mental health in the British 1946 birth cohort

Childhood and adolescent predictors of alcohol use and problems in adolescence and adulthood in the National Child Development Study

AIMS

To identify childhood and adolescent predictors of alcohol use and harmful drinking in adolescence and adulthood.

DESIGN

Longitudinal data from childhood to mid-life from the National Child Development Study (NCDS) were used, including predictors collected at ages 7, 11, 16 years and alcohol outcomes collected at ages 16, 23, 33 and 42 years.

SETTING

The NCDS is an ongoing longitudinal study of a cohort of 1 week's births in Britain in 1958.

PARTICIPANTS

Childhood and adolescent predictors and alcohol use data from at least one adolescent or adult wave were available from 7883 females and 8126 males.

MEASUREMENTS

Social background, family, academic and behavioural predictors measured at ages 7, 11 and 16 years were entered into hierarchical multiple and logistic regressions to predict quantity of alcohol use at ages 16, 23, and 33 years and harmful drinking [i.e. Cut-down, Annoyed, Guilt, Eye-opener (CAGE) questionnaire score] by age 42 years.

FINDINGS

Previous drinking was controlled in final models to predict change. Drinking was heavier among those with greater childhood and adolescent social advantage (especially females), less harmonious family relationships, more social maladjustment, greater academic performance, less internalizing problems, more truancy and earlier school-leaving plans.

CONCLUSIONS

Alcohol use and problems in adulthood can be predicted by indicators of social background, adjustment and behaviour in childhood and adolescence. Results demonstrate that the early roots of adolescent and adult alcohol use behaviours begin in childhood.

Childhood and adolescent predictors of heavy drinking and alcohol use disorders in early adulthood: a longitudinal developmental analysis

AIMS

To identify childhood and adolescent factors differentiating heavy alcohol users in early adulthood from more moderate users or abstainers.

DESIGN

Low-income participants followed from birth to age 28 years.

PARTICIPANTS

A total of 178 adults (95 males) who were first-born children of low-income mothers recruited in Minneapolis, Minnesota, during their third trimester of pregnancy.

MEASUREMENTS

Maternal hostility (24/42 months), externalizing and internalizing behavior problems (9 years), peer acceptance and academic achievement (12 years), maternal alcohol use and participants' drinking behavior (16 years), quantity of alcohol use per occasion (19, 23 and 26 years), alcohol use disorders (28 years).

FINDINGS

For men: (i) higher amounts of alcohol consumption at age 16 increased the odds of being a heavy drinker compared to an abstainer (age 19) and a moderate drinker (ages 23 and 26); (ii) lower achievement scores at age 12 and having a mother who drank more when the participant was age 16 increased the odds of being a heavy drinker compared to moderate drinker (age 26). Higher levels of externalizing behavior problems at age 9 and drinking more when the participants were age 16 increased the odds that men would have a current alcohol use disorder at age 28. For women: (i) drinking more at age 16 increased the odds of being a heavy drinker compared to being either an abstainer or a moderate drinker (age 26); (ii) having higher levels of achievement at age 12 increased the odds of being a heavy drinker compared to an abstainer at age 23. Adolescent alcohol use mediated the relation between externalizing behavior at age 9 and alcohol use at age 26 for women.

CONCLUSIONS

Problem drinking may be the result of a long-term developmental process wherein childhood externalizing behavior problems sets a pathway leading to heavy drinking during and after adolescence.

Pre-morbid intelligence, the metabolic syndrome and mortality: the Vietnam Experience Study

AIMS/HYPOTHESIS

We examined the relationship between pre-morbid intelligence quotient (IQ) and the metabolic syndrome, and assessed the role of the metabolic syndrome as a mediating factor in the association of IQ with total and cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality.

METHODS

In this cohort study, 4,157 men with IQ test results from late adolescence or early adulthood [mean age (range) 20.4 (16-30) years] attended a clinical examination in middle-age [38.3 (31-46) years] at which the components of the metabolic syndrome were measured. They were then followed for 15 years to assess mortality.

RESULTS

In age-adjusted analyses, IQ was significantly inversely related to four of the five individual components comprising the metabolic syndrome: hypertension, high BMI, high triglycerides and high blood glucose, but not low HDL-cholesterol. After controlling for a range of covariates that included socioeconomic position, higher IQ scores were associated with a reduced prevalence of the metabolic syndrome itself (odds ratio(1 SD increase in IQ) 0.87, 95% CI 0.78-0.98). Structural equation modelling revealed that education was not a mediator of the relationship between IQ and the metabolic syndrome. The metabolic syndrome partially mediated the relationship between IQ and CVD but not that between IQ and total mortality.

CONCLUSIONS/INTERPRETATION

In this cohort, higher scores on a pre-morbid IQ test were associated with a lower prevalence of the metabolic syndrome and most of its components. The metabolic syndrome was a mediating variable in the IQ-CVD relationship.

Childhood mental ability and adult alcohol intake and alcohol problems: the 1970 British cohort study

OBJECTIVES

We examined the potential relation of mental ability test scores at age 10 years with alcohol problems and alcohol intake at age 30 years.

METHODS

We used data from a prospective observational study involving 8170 members of a birth cohort from Great Britain born in 1970. Data included mental ability scores at age 10 years and responses to inquiries about alcohol intake and problems at age 30 years.

RESULTS

After adjustment for potential mediating and confounding factors, cohort members with higher childhood mental ability scores had an increased prevalence of problem drinking in adulthood. This association was stronger among women (odds ratio [OR](1 SD increase in ability) = 1.38; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.16, 1.64) than men (OR(1 SD increase in ability) = 1.17; CI = 1.04, 1.28; P for interaction = .004). Childhood mental ability was also related to a higher average intake of alcohol and to drinking more frequently. Again, these gradients were stronger among women than among men.

CONCLUSIONS

In this large-scale cohort study, higher childhood mental ability was related to alcohol problems and higher alcohol intake in adult life. These unexpected results warrant examination in other studies.