Early Origins of Adult Cancer Risk Among Men and Women: Influence of Childhood Misfortune?

Childhood and Adulthood Trauma Associate With Cognitive Aging Among Black and White Older Adults

Sociocontextual factors powerfully shape risk for age-related cognitive impairment, including excess risk burdening medically underserved populations. Lifecourse adversity associates with cognitive aging, but harms are likely mitigable. Understanding population-salient relationships and sensitive periods for exposure is crucial for targeting clinical interventions.

OBJECTIVE

The authors examined childhood and adulthood traumatic events in relation to cognition among Black and White older adults in the Health and Retirement Study (HRS).

PARTICIPANTS

Participants (N = 13,952) aged 55+ had complete lifetime trauma and cognitive testing data at the 2006/08, 2010/12, and/or 2014/16 waves.

MEASURES

Trauma indices comprised childhood and adulthood event counts. Outcomes included baseline performance and trajectories on the Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status.

DESIGN

Main and nonlinear trauma effects were modeled via linear regression, and overall contributions assessed with omnibus likelihood ratio tests.

RESULTS

Black participants (N = 2,345) reported marginally lower adulthood trauma exposure than White participants (N = 11,607) with no other exposure differentials observed. In White participants only, greater childhood trauma exposure predicted worse baseline cognition but slower change over time. Across race, adulthood trauma robustly associated with baseline cognition. Relationships were frequently nonlinear: low but nonzero trauma predicted highest cognitive scores, with much poorer cognition observed as trauma exposure increased. Relationships between adulthood trauma and trajectory were limited to the White sample.

CONCLUSION

Traumatic experiences, particularly in adulthood, may impact late-life cognitive health if not addressed. Findings highlight foci for clinical researchers and providers: adverse life events as a source of cognitive risk, and identification of community-specific resources that buffer behavioral, physical, and mental health sequelae of previous and incident trauma.

Biological expressions of early life trauma in the immune system of older adults

BACKGROUND

Poor immune function is associated with increased risk for a number of age-related diseases, however, little is known about the impact of early life trauma on immune function in late-life.

METHODS

Using nationally representative data from the Health and Retirement Study (n = 5,823), we examined the association between experiencing parental/caregiver death or separation before age 16 and four indicators of immune function in late-life: C-reactive Protein (CRP), Interleukin-6 (IL-6), soluble Tumor Necrosis Factor (sTNFR), and Immunoglobulin G (IgG) response to cytomegalovirus (CMV). We also examined racial/ethnic differences.

FINDINGS

Individuals that identified as racial/ethnic minorities were more likely to experience parental/caregiver loss and parental separation in early life compared to Non-Hispanic Whites, and had poorer immune function in late-life. We found consistent associations between experiencing parental/caregiver loss and separation and poor immune function measured by CMV IgG levels and IL-6 across all racial/ethnic subgroups. For example, among Non-Hispanic Blacks, those that experienced parental/caregiver death before age 16 had a 26% increase in CMV IgG antibodies in late-life (β = 1.26; 95% CI: 1.17, 1.34) compared to a 3% increase in CMV antibodies among Non-Hispanic Whites (β = 1.03; 95% CI: 0.99, 1.07) controlling for age, gender, and parental education.

INTERPRETATION

Our results suggest a durable association between experiencing early life trauma and immune health in late-life, and that structural forces may shape the ways in which these relationships unfold over the life course.

Childhood Stressors, Relationship Quality, and Cognitive Health in Later Life

OBJECTIVES

The rising prevalence of cognitive impairment, Alzheimer's disease, and related disorders signals the need for a better understanding of how social factors may affect cognitive health for millions of Americans. Drawing from cumulative inequality theory, we aim to understand the implications of a stressful childhood on social relationships and cognitive health in later life.

METHODS

This study utilizes longitudinal data (2006-2016) from the Health and Retirement Study to examine pathways, both direct and indirect through social relationships in adulthood, from childhood stressors to cognitive health trajectories over time.

RESULTS

Respondents reporting a greater number of stressors in childhood had worse cognitive health over time, but those negative effects were not as steep as time progressed. Early-life stressors are also associated with less social support and more social strain in adulthood which, in turn, are associated with initial cognitive health. Finally, pathway analyses confirm that childhood stressors are indirectly associated with initial cognitive health through social strain and social support.

DISCUSSION

Findings reveal that a stressful childhood creates chains of risks that have lifelong implications for cognitive health, both directly and indirectly by creating obstacles for developing healthy and supportive social relationships.

Childhood Disadvantage and Adult Functional Status: Do Early-Life Exposures Jeopardize Healthy Aging?

OBJECTIVES

To examine whether childhood disadvantage is associated with later-life functional status and identify mediating factors.

METHODS

Unique and additive effects of five childhood domains on functional status were assessed at baseline (2006) and over time (2006-2016) in a sample of 13,894 adults from the Health and Retirement Study (>50 years). Adult health behaviors and socioeconomic status (SES) were tested as mediators.

RESULTS

Respondents exposed to multiple childhood disadvantages (OR = .694) as well as low childhood SES (OR = .615), chronic diseases (OR = .694), impairments (OR = .599), and risky adolescent behaviors (OR = .608) were less likely to be free of functional disability by baseline. Over time, these unique and additive effects of childhood disadvantage increased the hazard odds of eventually developing functional disability (e.g., additive effect: hOR = 1.261). Adult health behaviors and SES mediated some of these effects.

DISCUSSION

Given the enduring effects of childhood disadvantage, policies to promote healthy aging should reduce exposure to childhood disadvantage.

Evaluating the Cumulative Impact of Childhood Misfortune: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach

Most studies of the early origins of adult health rely on summing dichotomously measured negative exposures to measure childhood misfortune (CM), neglect, adversity, or trauma. There are several limitations to this approach, including that it assumes each exposure carries the same level of risk for a particular outcome. Further, it often leads researchers to dichotomize continuous measures for the sake of creating an additive variable from similar indicators. We propose an alternative approach within the structural equation modeling (SEM) framework that allows differential weighting of the negative exposures and can incorporate dichotomous and continuous observed variables as well as latent variables. Using the Health and Retirement Study data, our analyses compare the traditional approach (i.e., adding indicators) with alternative models and assess their prognostic validity on adult depressive symptoms. Results reveal that parameter estimates using the conventional model likely underestimate the effects of CM on adult health outcomes. Additionally, while the conventional approach inhibits testing for mediation, our model enables testing mediation of both individual CM variables and the cumulative variable. Further, we test whether cumulative CM is moderated by the accumulation of protective factors, which facilitates theoretical advances in life course and social inequality research. The approach presented here is one way to examine the cumulative effects of early exposures while attending to diversity in the types of exposures experienced. Using the SEM framework, this versatile approach could be used to model the accumulation of risk or reward in many other areas of sociology and the social sciences beyond health.

Are Biological Consequences of Childhood Exposures Detectable in Telomere Length Decades Later?

Negative early-life exposures have been linked to a host of poor adult health outcomes, but are such early exposures associated with cellular senescence decades later? This study uses data from the Health and Retirement Study to examine the association between six childhood exposure domains (eg, socioeconomic disadvantage, risky parental behavior) and a biomarker of aging, telomere length, among 4,935 respondents. Telomere length is obtained from DNA of cells found in saliva and is measured as the telomere repeat copy number to single gene copy number ratio (T/S). Men who as children were exposed to risky parental behaviors or who reported risky adolescent behaviors have shorter telomeres (b = -0.031, p = .052; b = -0.041, p = .045, respectively); however, these relationships are attenuated after adjusting for adult risks and resources. Among women, parental substance abuse is associated with shorter telomeres even after adjusting for adult risks and resources (b = -0.041, p = .005). In addition, men and women whose mother lived at least until the age of 85 have longer telomeres than those without a long-lived mother (b = 0.021, p = .045; b = 0.032, p = .005, respectively). Taken together, the ways in which early-life exposures are associated with adult telomeres vary for men and women.

Early Origins of Body Mass in Later Life: Examining Childhood Risks and Adult Pathways

Prior research reveals that negative early-life experiences play a major role in the development of obesity in later life, but few studies identify mechanisms that alter the lifetime risk of obesity. This study examines the influence of negative childhood experiences on body mass index (BMI) and obesity (BMI ≥30) during older adulthood and the psychosocial and behavioral pathways involved. Using a nationally representative sample, we examine the influence of cumulative misfortune as well as five separate domains of misfortune on BMI and obesity. Results show that four of the five domains are associated with BMI and obesity either directly, indirectly, or both. The influence of cumulative misfortune on the outcomes is mediated by three adult factors: socioeconomic status, depressive symptoms, and physical activity. The mediators identified here provide targets for intervention among older adults to help offset the health risks of excess BMI attributable of early-life exposure to misfortune.

Anti-aging technoscience & the biologization of cumulative inequality: Affinities in the biopolitics of successful aging

This paper charts the emergence of under-remarked affinities between contemporary anti-aging technoscience and some social scientific work on biological aging. Both have recently sought to develop increasingly sophisticated operationalizations of age, aging and agedness as biological phenomena, in response to traditional notions of normal and chronological aging. Rather than being an interesting coincidence, these affinities indicate the influence of a biopolitics of successful aging on government, industry and social science. This biopolitics construes aging as a personal project that is mastered through specific forms of entrepreneurial individual action, especially consumption practices. Social scientists must remain alert to this biopolitics and its influence on their own work, because the individualization of cumulative inequalities provides intellectual and moral justifications for anti-aging interventions that exploit those inequalities.

Early Social Origins of Biological Risks for Men and Women in Later Life

We investigate whether childhood exposures influence adult chronic inflammation and mortality risk via adult health characteristics and socioeconomic status (SES) and whether gender moderates these relationships. Analyzing a longitudinal national sample of 9,310 men and women over age 50, we found that childhood SES, parental behaviors, and adolescent behaviors were associated with adult chronic inflammation via health characteristics and SES in adulthood. The process of disadvantage initiated by low childhood SES (i.e., adult health risk factors, socioeconomic disadvantage, and chronic inflammation) subsequently raised mortality risk. In addition, gender moderated the mediating influence of childhood SES via unhealthy behaviors and parental behaviors via adult SES. Demonstrating how social forces shape biological health through multiple mechanisms informs health policies by identifying multiple points of intervention in an effort to reduce the lasting consequences of childhood disadvantage.

Why does the importance of education for health differ across the United States?

The positive association between educational attainment and adult health ("the gradient") is stronger in some areas of the United States than in others. Explanations for the geographic pattern have not been rigorously investigated. Grounded in a contextual and life course perspective, this study assesses childhood circumstances (e.g., childhood health, compulsory schooling laws) and adult circumstances (e.g., wealth, lifestyles, economic policies) as potential explanations. Using data on US-born adults aged 50-59 at baseline (N=13,095) and followed for up to 16 years across the 1998-2014 waves of the Health and Retirement Study, this study examined how and why educational gradients in morbidity, functioning, and mortality vary across nine U.S. regions. The findings indicate that the gradient is stronger in some areas than others partly because of geographic differences in childhood socioeconomic conditions and health, but mostly because of geographic differences in adult circumstances such as wealth, lifestyles, and economic and tobacco policies.

Domains of Childhood Disadvantage and Functional Limitation Trajectories Among Midlife Men and Women in China

Objective: To examine the impacts of four childhood disadvantage domains-parental behavior, hunger, health, and socioeconomic status (SES)-on functional limitation trajectories among midlife adults in China. Method: Data (2011-2015) from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (N = 8,646) were used to examine the associations between different domains of childhood disadvantage and functional limitation trajectories among adults aged 45 to 64. Results: Adverse parental behavior was not associated with baseline functional limitation but was associated with steeper trajectories for men. Health, hunger, and SES were associated with more functional limitations at baseline, and SES with steeper trajectories for men and women. Adulthood SES largely accounted for the associations between childhood SES and functional limitations for men. Discussion: It is important to examine multiple domains of childhood conditions because the type and magnitude of disadvantage may influence functional limitations in different ways among men and women in China.

Avoiding the Major Causes of Death: Does Childhood Misfortune Reduce the Likelihood of Being Disease Free in Later Life?

Objectives

Although previous research reveals the detrimental effects of early misfortune on the development of chronic diseases in later life, few studies have investigated its effects on remaining disease free. This study draws on cumulative inequality theory to investigate whether experiencing childhood misfortune reduces the likelihood of remaining disease free over time.

Method

This study utilizes five waves of data from the Health and Retirement Study to test whether five domains of childhood misfortune predict being disease free at baseline (2004) and developing disease over time (2004-2012).

Results

Respondents reporting risky parental behaviors during childhood were less likely to be disease free at baseline and had an increased risk of disease onset over time, the latter driven by having a guardian who smoked in combination with more pack-years smoked in adulthood. Furthermore, we find that adult resources, that is wealth, help to mitigate the noxious effects of other misfortunes, notably poor socioeconomic conditions.

Discussion

Consistent with cumulative inequality theory, these findings reveal that experiencing multiple types of misfortune during childhood decreases the likelihood of remaining disease free in later life, but engaging in health behaviors, such as physical activity, can help to ameliorate some of the noxious effects of early misfortune.