Early-Life Circumstances, Health Behavior Profiles, and Later-Life Health in Great Britain.
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: van den Broek T
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8120632 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Similar Datasets
Project description:Objectives: This study aimed to examine the association between early life famine exposure and adulthood cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) risk. Methods: A total of 5,504 subjects were selected using their birthdate from national baseline data of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Survey to analyze the association between famine exposure in early life and CVDs risk in adulthood. CVDs was defined based on the self-reported doctor's diagnosis. Results: The prevalence of CVDs in the unexposed group, fetal-exposed, infant-exposed, and preschool-exposed groups was 15.0%, 18.0%, 21.0%, and 18.3%, respectively. Compared with the unexposed group, fetal-exposed, infant-exposed and preschool-exposed groups had higher CVDs risk in adulthood (p < 0.05). Compared with the age-matched control group, infancy exposed to famine had a significantly higher adulthood CVDs risk (OR = 1.52, 95% CI: 1.15, 2.01; p = 0.006). The association seems to be stronger among population with higher education level (P interaction = 0.043). Sensitivity analysis revealed consistent association between early-life famine exposure and adult CVDs risk. Conclusion: Early life exposed to the China great famine may elevate the risk of CVDs in adulthood.
| S-EPMC8565276 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Understanding lifestyle improvements among individuals with chronic illness is vital for targeting interventions that can increase longevity and improve quality of life.Data from the U.S. Health and Retirement Study were used to examine changes in smoking, alcohol use, and exercise 2-14 years after a diagnosis of heart disease, diabetes, cancer, stroke, or lung disease.Patterns of behavior change following diagnosis indicated that the vast majority of individuals diagnosed with a new chronic condition did not adopt healthier behaviors. Smoking cessation among those with heart disease was the largest observed change, but only 40% of smokers quit. There were no significant increases in exercise for any health condition. Changes in alcohol consumption were small, with significant declines in excessive drinking and increases in abstention for a few health conditions. Over the long term, individuals who made changes appeared to maintain those changes. Latent growth curve analyses up to 14 years after diagnosis showed no average long-term improvement in health behaviors.Results provide important new information on health behavior changes among those with chronic disease and suggest that intensive efforts are required to help initiate and maintain lifestyle improvements among this population.
| S-EPMC3325087 | biostudies-other
Project description:BackgroundSingle-episode anesthetic exposure is the most prevalent surgery-related incidence among young children in the United States. Although numerous studies have used animals to model the effects of neonatal anesthetics on behavioral changes later on in life, our understanding of the functional consequences to the developing brain in a comprehensive and clinically relevant manner is unclear.MethodsThe volatile anesthetic, sevoflurane (sevo) was administered to C57BL6 postnatal day 7 (P7) mice in a 40% oxygen and 60% nitrogen gas mixture. In order to examine the effects of sevo alone on the developing brain in a clinically relevant manner, mice were exposed to an average of 2.38 ± 0.11% sevo for 2 h. No sevo (control) mice were treated in an identical manner without sevo exposure. Mice were examined for cognition and neuropsychiatric-like behavioral changes at 1-5 months of age.ResultsUsing the active place avoidance (APA) test and the novel object recognition (NOR) test, we demonstrated that P7 sevo-treated mice showed a deficit in learning and memory both during periadolescence and adulthood. We then employed a battery of neuropsychiatric-like behavioral tests to examine social interaction, communication, and repetitive behavior. Interestingly, compared to the no-sevo-treated group, sevo-treated mice showed significant reductions in the time interacting with a novel mouse (push-crawl and following), time and interaction in a chamber with a novel mouse, and time sniffing a novel social odor.ConclusionsOur study established that single-episode, 2-h sevo treatment during early life impairs cognition later on in life. With this approach, we also observed neuropsychiatric-like behavior changes such as social interaction deficits in the sevo-treated mice. This study elucidated the effects of a clinically relevant single-episode sevo application, given during the neonatal period, on neurodevelopmental behavioral changes later on in life.
| S-EPMC5036436 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundThis study explores inequality of opportunity in terms of the health of adult Indonesian people, associated with household and parental circumstances in childhood and adolescence.MethodsExploiting the longitudinal nature of the Indonesian Family Life Survey, this study measures inequalities relating to being underweight, overweight, hypertensive and diabetic across adult Indonesians aged between 20 and 35 through the dissimilarity index. This study explores their determinants by decomposing the observed inequality levels into contributing factors. Moreover, this study sheds light on the underlying mechanisms through which early-life circumstances influence the health of grown-up respondents, by estimating the intermediate effects of early-life circumstances on current lifestyles.ResultsFor all health conditions, health risks are unequally distributed (all p<0.01). Demographic factors and parental health are major contributors to inequalities relating to being underweight, overweight and hypertensive. Family structure and parental occupation are major contributors to inequality in diabetes. The greater part of this inequality is explained by the indirect pathways through which early-life circumstances mediate current diet and exercise habits.ConclusionsThe results suggest that such interventions that compensate for disadvantaged early-life circumstances would be essential in reducing future health risks and mitigating health inequality.
| S-EPMC9278321 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Our study details the creation of a series of national open source low-level geographical measures of accessibility to health-related features for Great Britain. We create 14 measures across three domains: retail environment (fast food outlets, gambling outlets, pubs/bars/nightclubs, off-licences, tobacconists), health services (General Practitioners, pharmacies, dentists, hospitals, leisure centres) and the physical environment (green space and air quality). Using the network analysis process of Routino, postcode accessibility (km) to each of these features were calculated for the whole of Great Britain. An average score for each domain was calculated and subsequently combined to form an overall Index highlighting 'Access to Healthy Assets and Hazards'. We find the most accessible healthy areas are concentrated in the periphery of the urban cores, whilst the least accessible healthy areas are located in the urban cores and the rural areas. The open data resource is important for researchers and policy makers alike with an interest in measuring the role of spatial features on health.
| S-EPMC6602943 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundPerhaps, as never before, we need innovators. With our growing population numbers, and with increasing pressures on our education systems, are we in danger of becoming more rigid and formulaic and increasingly inhibiting innovation? When young can we predict who will become the great innovators? For example, in medicine, who will change clinical practice?AimsWe therefore determined to assess whether the current academic excellence approach to medical school entrance would have captured previous great innovators in medicine, assuming that they should all have well fulfilled current entrance requirements.MethodsThe authors assembled a list of 100 great medical innovators which was then approved, rejected or added to by a jury of 12 MD fellows of the Royal Society of Canada. Two reviewers, who had taken both the past and present Medical College Admission Test as part of North American medical school entrance requirements, independently assessed each innovator's early life educational history in order to predict the innovator's likely success at medical school entry, assuming excellence in all entrance requirements.ResultsThirty-one percent of the great medical innovators possessed no medical degree and 24% would likely be denied entry to medical school by today's standards (e.g. had a history of poor performance, failure, dropout or expulsion) with only 24% being guaranteed entry. Even if excellence in only one topic was required, the figure would only rise to 41% certain of medical school entry.ConclusionThese data show that today's medical school entry standards would have barred many great innovators and raise questions about whether we are losing medical innovators as a consequence. Our findings have important implications for promoting flexibility and innovation for medical education, and for promoting an environment for innovation in general.
| S-EPMC8497073 | biostudies-literature
Project description:ObjectivesThis study aimed to evaluate the association between early-life exposure to the Great Chinese Famine (1959-1961) and the prevalence of poor physical function in midlife.DesignA population-based historical prospective study was performed as part of a wider cross-sectional survey. Exposure to famine was defined by birthdate, and participants were divided into non-exposed group, fetal-exposed group and infant-exposed group.Setting and participantsA total of 3595 subjects were enrolled into the study from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) 2015 based on random selection of households that had at least one member aged 45 years old and older in 28 provinces of mainland China.Main outcome measuresPhysical function status was assessed by a six-item self-report on the Barthel scale which rated basic activities of daily living (BADL).Results743 (20.7%) out of all participants were exposed to the Great Chinese Famine in their fetal periods, while 1550 (43.1%) participants were exposed at the age of an infant. The prevalence of poor physical function in the non-exposed group, fetal period-exposed group and infant period-exposed group were 12.3%, 15.5% and 17.0%, respectively. Among males, after stratification by gender and severity of famine, the prevalence of poor physical function in the fetal period was significantly higher (OR 2.40, 95% CI 1.18 to 4.89, p=0.015) than the non-exposed group in severely affected areas, even after adjusting for the number of chronic diseases, place of residence, smoking and alcohol drinking habits, marital status, educational level and body mass index. A similar connection between prenatal and early postnatal exposure to the Great Chinese Famine and the prevalence of poor physical function in midlife, however, was not observed from female adults.ConclusionsMales who were exposed to the Great Chinese Famine (1959-1961) present considerably decreased physical function in their later life.
| S-EPMC6661887 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Studies extending across multiple life stages promote an understanding of factors influencing health across the life span. Existing work has largely focused on individual-level rather than area-level early life determinants of health. In this study, we linked multiple data sets to examine whether early life state-level characteristics were predictive of health and mortality decades later. The sample included 143,755 U.S. employees, for whom work life claims and administrative data were linked with early life state-of-residence and mortality. We first created a "state health risk score" (SHRS) and "state mortality risk score" (SMRS) by modeling state-level contextual characteristics with health status and mortality in a randomly selected 30% of the sample (the "training set"). We then examined the association of these scores with objective health status and mortality in later life in the remaining 70% of the sample (the "test set") using multivariate linear and Cox regressions, respectively. The association between the SHRS and adult health status was β=0.14 (95%CI: 0.084, 0.20), while the hazard ratio for the SMRS was 0.96 (95%CI: 0.93, 1.00). The association between the SHRS and health was not statistically significant in older age groups at a p-level of 0.05, and there was a statistically significantly different association for health status among movers compared to stayers. This study uses a life course perspective and supports the idea of "sensitive periods" in early life that have enduring impacts on health. It adds to the literature examining populations in the U.S. where large linked data sets are infrequently available.
| S-EPMC5047283 | biostudies-literature
Project description:ObjectivesAge stereotypes and expectations about one's own aging commence in childhood but most research focuses on predictive associations with midlife health behaviors, later-life chronic conditions, biomarkers, and longevity. Surprisingly little is known about the role of poor childhood health in these associations. This study aims to fill this gap.MethodsUsing data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS: N = 5,773, aged 50-98), we investigated whether diagnosed chronic illness before age 16 and self-rated childhood health predict late-life self-perceptions of aging (SPA) and proportional subjective age discrepancy (PSAD). We conducted multivariate multiple regression analysis (MMRA) to determine the joint and partial effects of the two indicators of childhood health. Models included controls for childhood family financial status as well as late-life self-rated health, chronic illnesses, memory status, and demographic covariates (age, gender, race/ethnicity, marital status, socioeconomic status) in 2016.ResultsOver and above all covariates and the covariation of the two views of one's own aging, the MMRA models revealed that the number of childhood chronic illnesses predicted SPA but not for PSAD. Self-rated childhood health predicted both SPA and PSAD in the unadjusted models, but not in the adjusted models.DiscussionThis study provides new insight into potential early-life precursors of self-evaluations of aging. In particular, childhood diagnoses of chronic illness enhance negative SPA up to 50 years later. Non-normative experiences related to poor health in childhood are lifelong foundations for socioeconomic status, health, and for self-related beliefs about age and aging.
| S-EPMC8063672 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Recent investigations indicate that personality traits are unevenly distributed geographically, with some traits being more prevalent in certain places than in others. The geographical distributions of personality traits are associated with a range of important political, economic, social, and health outcomes. The majority of research on this subject has focused on the geographical distributions and macro-level correlates of personality across nations or regions of the United States. The aim of the present investigation was to replicate and extend that past work by examining regional personality differences in Great Britain. Using a sample of nearly 400,000 British residents, we mapped the geographical distributions of the Big Five Personality traits across 380 Local Authority Districts and examined the associations with important political, economic, social, and health outcomes. The results revealed distinct geographical clusters, with neighboring regions displaying similar personality characteristics, and robust associations with the macro-level outcome variables. Overall, the patterns of results were similar to findings from past research.
| S-EPMC4372610 | biostudies-literature