Dataset Information

Exposure to out-of-home care in childhood and adult all-cause mortality: a cohort study.

ABSTRACT: Children placed in out-of-home care (OHC) have exceedingly high rates of health problems. Their poor health tends to persist across adolescence and into young adulthood, resulting in increased risks of mortality. Yet, very little is known about this group's mortality risks later in life. The aim of this study was to investigate whether OHC was associated with the risk of all-cause mortality across adulthood, and whether these risks varied across different placement characteristics. Moreover, the study addressed potential confounding by including two comparison groups with children who grew up under similarly adverse living conditions but did not experience placement.Data were derived from a 60-year follow-up of a Stockholm cohort born in 1953 ( n = 15 048), of whom around 9% have had experiences of OHC. The associations between OHC and subsequent all-cause mortality were analysed by means of Cox's proportional hazards regression models.Individuals who were placed in OHC at any point during their formative years had increased mortality risks across ages 20 to 56 years. Elevated risk of mortality was particularly pronounced among those who were placed in adolescence and/or because of their own behaviours. Children who were exposed to OHC had increased risks of mortality also when compared with those who grew up under similar living conditions but did not experience placement.Children in OHC constitute a high-risk group for subsequent mortality. In order to narrow the mortality gap, interventions may need to monitor not only health aspects but also to target the cognitive and social development of these children.

SUBMITTER: Gao M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5837321 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Exposure to out-of-home care in childhood and adult all-cause mortality: a cohort study.

Gao Menghan M Brännström Lars L Almquist Ylva B YB

International journal of epidemiology 20170601 3

<h4>Background</h4>Children placed in out-of-home care (OHC) have exceedingly high rates of health problems. Their poor health tends to persist across adolescence and into young adulthood, resulting in increased risks of mortality. Yet, very little is known about this group's mortality risks later in life. The aim of this study was to investigate whether OHC was associated with the risk of all-cause mortality across adulthood, and whether these risks varied across different placement characteris ...[more]

PMID: 28031308

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Project description:BACKGROUND:The adverse life-long consequences of being looked-after as a child are well recognised, but follow-up periods for mortality risk have mostly ended in young adulthood and mortality suggested to differ by age of placement, gender and cohort in small samples. METHODS:Data on 353,601 Office for National Statistics Longitudinal Study (LS) members during census years 1971-2001, and Cox proportional hazards regression models with time-varying covariates (age as the timescale), were used to examine whether childhood out-of-home care was associated with all-cause mortality until the end of 2013. After adjusting for baseline age and age2, gender, born outside the United Kingdom, number of census observations in childhood and baseline census year we tested whether mortality risk varied for those in care by age, gender and baseline census year, by separate assessment of interaction terms. Supplementary analyses assessed robustness of findings. RESULTS:Adults who had been in care at any census (maximum of two) had an adjusted all-cause mortality hazard ratio 1.62 (95% CI 1.43, 1.86) times higher than adults who had never been in care. The excess mortality was mainly attributable to deaths categorised as self-harm, accidents and mental & behavioural causes. Mortality risk was elevated if the LS member was initially assessed in 1981 or 2001, compared to 1971. There was no significant variation in mortality risk for those in care by age or gender. The main findings were consistent irrespective of choice of comparison group (whole population, disadvantaged population), care placement (residential, non-residential) and age at death (all ages, adulthood only). CONCLUSIONS:In this large, nationally representative study of dependent children resident in England and Wales, those who had been in care during childhood had a higher risk of mortality long after they had left care on average, mainly from unnatural causes. No differences by age or gender were found. Children in care have not benefitted from the general decline in mortality risk over time.

Project description:Evictions may have serious consequences for individuals' health and wellbeing. Even though an eviction may be experienced as a significant crisis for the family, there is little previous knowledge on consequences for evicted children. This study represents the first attempt to examine to what extent children from evicted households were separated from their parents and placed in out-of-home care (foster family or residential care) using population-based data, net of observed confounding factors related to the socioeconomic and psychosocial circumstances of their parents.This study takes advantage of information from a Swedish national database, consisting of about 8 000 evicted individuals and a random sample of 770 000 individuals from the national population, linked to individual-level, longitudinal data from Swedish national registers. Our analytical sample consists of information for more than 250 000 children born in 1995-2008, including 2 224 children from evicted households. We used binary logistic regression based on the Karlson/Holm/Breen method to account for observed imbalances at baseline between evicted and non-evicted children.Compared to non-evicted children, the crude odds ratio for placement in out-of-home care in evicted children was 12.10 (95% CI 8.54-17.14). Net of observed confounding factors related to the socioeconomic and psychosocial circumstances of the parents, evicted children had a twofold elevated risk of being placed in out-of-home care (odds ratio 2.26, 95% CI 1.55-3.27). Crude OR for evicted children in comparison with children under threat of eviction (eviction not formally executed) was 1.71 (95% CI 1.17-2.49) and adjusted OR 1.58 (95% CI 1.06-2.35).Children who experience eviction constitute a disadvantaged group and are at significant risk of being separated from their parents and placed in out-of-home care. These results demonstrate the importance of providing support for these children and their parents. Strategies to prevent households with children from being evicted seem to be an important and viable intervention path.

Project description:BACKGROUND:Pediatric obesity is associated with increased risk of premature death from middle age onward, but whether the risk is already increased in young adulthood is unclear. The aim was to investigate whether individuals who had obesity in childhood have an increased mortality risk in young adulthood, compared with a population-based comparison group. METHODS AND FINDINGS:In this prospective cohort study, we linked nationwide registers and collected data on 41,359 individuals. Individuals enrolled at age 3-17.9 years in the Swedish Childhood Obesity Treatment Register (BORIS) and living in Sweden on their 18th birthday (start of follow-up) were included. A comparison group was matched by year of birth, sex, and area of residence. We analyzed all-cause mortality and cause-specific mortality using Cox proportional hazards models, adjusted according to group, sex, Nordic origin, and parental socioeconomic status (SES). Over 190,752 person-years of follow-up (median follow-up time 3.6 years), 104 deaths were recorded. Median (IQR) age at death was 22.0 (20.0-24.5) years. In the childhood obesity cohort, 0.55% (n = 39) died during the follow-up period, compared to 0.19% (n = 65) in the comparison group (p < 0.001). More than a quarter of the deaths among individuals in the childhood obesity cohort had obesity recorded as a primary or contributing cause of death. Male sex and low parental SES were associated with premature all-cause mortality. Suicide and self-harm with undetermined intent were the main cause of death in both groups. The largest difference between the groups lay within endogenous causes of death, where children who had undergone obesity treatment had an adjusted mortality rate ratio of 4.04 (95% CI 2.00-8.17, p < 0.001) compared with the comparison group. The main study limitation was the lack of anthropometric data in the comparison group. CONCLUSIONS:Our study shows that the risk of mortality in early adulthood may be higher for individuals who had obesity in childhood compared to a population-based comparison group.

Project description: To determine whether modern treatments for cancer are associated with a net increased or decreased risk of death from neoplastic and non-neoplastic causes among survivors of childhood cancer. Population based cohort study. British Childhood Cancer Survivor Study. Nationwide population based cohort of 34?489 five year survivors of childhood cancer with a diagnosis from 1940 to 2006 and followed up until 28 February 2014. Cause specific standardised mortality ratios and absolute excess risks are reported. Multivariable Poisson regression models were utilised to evaluate the simultaneous effect of risk factors. Likelihood ratio tests were used to test for heterogeneity or trend. Overall, 4475 deaths were observed, which was 9.1 (95% confidence interval 8.9 to 9.4) times that expected in the general population, corresponding to 64.2 (95% confidence interval 62.1 to 66.3) excess deaths per 10?000 person years. The number of excess deaths from all causes declined among those treated more recently; those treated during 1990-2006 experienced 30% of the excess number of deaths experienced by those treated before 1970. The corresponding percentages for the decline in excess deaths from recurrence or progression and non-neoplastic causes were 30% and 60%, respectively. Among survivors aged 50-59 years, 41% and 22% of excess deaths were attributable to subsequent primary neoplasms and circulatory conditions, respectively, whereas the corresponding percentages among those aged 60 years or more were 31% and 37%. The net effects of changes in cancer treatments, and surveillance and management for late effects, over the period 1940 to 2006 was to reduce the excess number of deaths from both recurrence or progression and non-neoplastic causes among those treated more recently. Among survivors aged 60 years or more, the excess number of deaths from circulatory causes exceeds the excess number of deaths from subsequent primary neoplasms. The important message for the evidence based surveillance aimed at preventing excess mortality and morbidity in survivors aged 60 years or more is that circulatory disease overtakes subsequent primary neoplasms as the leading cause of excess mortality.

Dataset Information

Exposure to out-of-home care in childhood and adult all-cause mortality: a cohort study.

Publications

Exposure to out-of-home care in childhood and adult all-cause mortality: a cohort study.

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