History of Childhood Adversity Tied to Higher COVID-19 Mortality Risks – Neuroscience News

Summary: A recent study reveals that individuals who experienced childhood adversity, such as neglect or abuse, faced higher chances of COVID-19 hospitalization or mortality in adulthood.

Analyzing over 151,200 adults from the UK Biobank, researchers linked increased reports of early life adversity to 12-25% elevated odds of severe COVID-19 outcomes. This connection remained significant even after accounting for other known risk factors.

The findings underscore the far-reaching impacts of early-life trauma on health outcomes, even decades later.

Key Facts:

Source: University of Pittsburgh

People who endured childhood adversity, like abuse or neglect, were more likely to be hospitalized or die from COVID-19 in adulthood, a new University of Pittsburgh study found. Specifically, higher self-reported childhood adversity was linked to 12-25% higher odds of COVID-19 hospitalization and mortality.

While age, sex, ethnicity, health, and sociodemographic factors have been related to such outcomes throughout the pandemic, this was the first study finding a link between these COVID-19 outcomes and childhood neglect and abuse.

Using the UK Biobank in Great Britain, a team lead byJamie L. Hanson, a researcher in Pitts Learning Research & Development Center and an assistant professor in psychology in the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences took a deep dive into information provided by more than 151,200 adults of middle age or older.

What the numbers showed was that people who reported adversity such as abuse or neglect while children were more likely to die or be hospitalized from COVID-19.

The study was published Nov. 1 in theJournal of Epidemiology and Community Health,the British Medical Associations journal focusing on different social determinants of health.

These findings highlight how trauma early in life can have long-lasting impacts on health decades later, Hanson said.

We know that COVID-19 is related to excessive hospitalization and death in the UK and in the United States. And theres emerging research finding that facing adversity, abuse or neglect, early in life, could have sizeable effects on physical health.

But no one had tried to connect these two trends. Knowing a bit more about someones early development could be important to help reduce disparities in COVID-19.

While Hanson and his co-authors maintain that their work opens the door for more pinpointed and global studies, they believe their findings show there could be a need for policies and interventions to lessen COVID-19 impacts in people who have suffered from such childhood adversity.

We may need targeted interventions for individuals and certain communities affected by childhood adversity to lessen the pandemics lasting impact, Hanson said.

Adversity may lead to risk for negative outcomes and the potential to have long-COVID. We need to complete more work to understand how adversity gets under the skin and increases vulnerability to poor health after COVID-19 infections.

In other words, as the co-authors wrote, not just COVID-19 but such findings could be used to limit adversity-related negative outcomes with future pandemics.

Author: Nicholas France Source: University of Pittsburgh Contact: Nicholas France University of Pittsburgh Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News

Original Research: Open access. Childhood adversity and COVID-19 outcomes in the UK Biobank by Jamie L. Hanson et al. Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health

Abstract

Childhood adversity and COVID-19 outcomes in the UK Biobank

Objectives

This study aims to investigate the association between childhood adversity and COVID-19-related hospitalisation and COVID-19-related mortality in the UK Biobank.

Design

Cohort study.

Setting

UK.

Participants

151200 participants in the UK Biobank cohort who had completed the Childhood Trauma Screen were alive at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic (January 2020) and were still active in the UK Biobank when hospitalisation and mortality data were most recently updated (November 2021).

Main outcome measures

COVID-19-related hospitalisation and COVID-19-related mortality.

Results

Higher self-reports of childhood adversity were related to greater likelihood of COVID-19-related hospitalisation in all statistical models. In models adjusted for age, ethnicity and sex, childhood adversity was associated with an odds ratio (OR) of 1.227 of hospitalisation (95% CI 1.153to 1.306, childhood adversityz=6.49, p<0.005) and an OR of 1.25 of a COVID-19-related death (95% CI 1.11to 1.424, childhood adversityz=3.5, p<0.005). Adjustment for potential confounds attenuated these associations, although associations remained statistically significant.

Conclusions

Childhood adversity was significantly associated with COVID-19-related hospitalisation and COVID-19-related mortality after adjusting for sociodemographic and health confounders. Further research is needed to clarify the biological and psychosocial processes

See the original post here:

History of Childhood Adversity Tied to Higher COVID-19 Mortality Risks - Neuroscience News