Table 1.
Associations between early life stress and health problems in adulthood
| Citation | Cited association | Type of study | Population | Sample size | Key metrics |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anda et al. (2008) | Association between childhood adversity and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) | Quasi-prospective | Adults | 15,472 | Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE; retrospective at baseline), COPD self-report, COPD incidence at follow-up, medication use at follow-up |
| Brown et al. (2010) | Association between childhood adversity lung cancer | Quasi-prospective | Adults | 17,337 | ACE (retrospective at baseline), hospital discharge at follow-up, mortality records at follow-up, adult smoking as mediator |
| Dong et al. (2004) | Association between childhood adversity and ischemic heart disease (IHD) | Retrospective | Adults | 17,337 | ACE, self-report of IHD, IHD risk factors (e.g., physical activity) as mediators |
| Dube et al. (2001) | Association between childhood adversity and suicide attempt | Retrospective | Adults | 17,337 | ACE, self-report suicide attempt, illicit drug use, depression, and alcoholism as mediators |
| Dube et al. (2009) | Association between childhood adversity and autoimmune diseases (AD) | Retrospective | Adults | 15,357 | ACE, hospitalization for 21 types of AD after baseline measurement of ACE, AD immunopathology grouping |
| Felitti et al. (1998) | Association between childhood adversity, health risk behaviors, obesity, and depression | Retrospective | Adults | 9,508 | ACE, health risk behaviors and disease from self-report and health screening |
| Miller and Chen (2010) | Association between early life harsh family climate and pro-inflammatory phenotype in adolescence | Prospective | Female adolescents | 135 | Harsh family climate, cytokine response to in-vitro bacterial challenge, sensitivity of glucocorticoid receptor |
| Montez and Hayward (2014) | Association between childhood adversity and active life expectancy | Retrospective | Adults | 30,671 | Childhood health and SES, mortality, activities of daily living (ADL), educational attainment as mediator |
| Norman et al. (2012) | Association between childhood adversity and physical and mental health problems | Meta-analysis | Mixed | >500,000 | Physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional and psychological abuse, neglect, depressive disorder, anxiety, alcohol abuse |
| Sripada et al. (2014) | Association between childhood poverty and stress reactivity in adulthood | Case-control | Adults | 52 | Childhood poverty, Trier Social Stress Test, salivary cortisol |
| Hughes et al. (2017) | Association between childhood adversity an poor health in adulthood | Meta-analysis | Mixed | 253,719 | ACE, cancer, heart disease, mental illness, drug use, and interpersonal and self-directed violence |
| Varese et al. (2012) | Association between childhood adversity and psychosis in adulthood | Meta-analysis | Mixed | 81,253 | Childhood sexual abuse, physical abuse, emotional/psychological abuse, neglect, parental death, bullying, psychotic disorder, schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder |
| Huang et al. (2015) | Association between childhood adversity and type 2 diabetes in adulthood | Meta-analysis | Mixed | 87,251 | ACE, type 2 diabetes |
| Infurna et al. (2016) | Association between childhood abuse and neglect and depression | Meta-analysis | Adults | 4,372 | Childhood experience of care and abuse (CECA), clinically assessed depression |
| Lindert et al. (2014) | Association between childhood sexual and physical abuse and depression | Meta-analysis | Mixed | 115,579 | Sexual and physical abuse prior to 16 years of age, depression and anxiety after 16 years of age |
| Palmier-Claus et al. (2018) | Association between childhood adversity and bipolar affective disorder | Meta-analysis | Mixed | >1,000,000 | Child abuse, neglect, bullying, loss of parent, trauma, bipolar disorder |
| Zatti et al. (2017) | Association between childhood trauma and suicide attempt | Meta-analysis | Children → Adults | 6,612 | Childhood sexual, physical, and emotional abuse, neglect, and suicide attempt |