Childhood Maltreatment and BMI Trajectories to Mid-Adult Life: Follow-Up to Age 50y in a British Birth Cohort |
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Authors: | Chris Power Snehal M Pinto Pereira Leah Li |
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Institution: | Population, Policy and Practice, UCL Institute of Child Health, University College London, WC1N 1EH, London, United Kingdom.; NIH / NIDDK, UNITED STATES, |
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Abstract: | BackgroundChildhood maltreatment including abuse and neglect has been associated with adult obesity, but evidence on life-course development of obesity or BMI gain is unclear. We aim to establish whether childhood maltreatments are related to obesity or BMI at different life-stages 7y-50y and to identify possible explanations for associations.MethodsChildhood physical, psychological and sexual abuse, neglect and BMI at seven ages were recorded in the 1958 birth cohort (n~15,000). Associations of child maltreatments with BMI at separate ages were tested using linear regression or logistic regression for obesity, and with rate of child-to-adult BMI gain using multilevel models. We adjusted for potential covariates.ResultsAbuse was reported in ~12% of the population. Abuse was not associated with elevated childhood BMI, but adult associations were observed: i.e. the abused had faster child-adult BMI gain than the non-abused; associations were independent of adult covariates. For physical abuse in both genders there was a positive linear association of ~0.006/y zBMI gain with age after adjustment for all covariates. Similarly, there was a linear association of physical abuse with obesity risk: e.g. among females from a low ORadjusted of 0.34 (0.16,0.71) at 7y to 1.67 (1.25,2.24) at 50y. In females faster zBMI gains with age of ~0.0034/y were observed for sexual abuse and increases in obesity risk were faster: from a low ORadjusted of 0.23 (0.06,0.84) at 7y to 1.34 (0.86,2.10) at 50y. Psychological abuse and neglect associations were less consistent.ConclusionsChildhood maltreatment associations with BMI or obesity varied across life: physical and, in females, sexual abuse were associated with faster lifetime BMI gains, which may have detrimental long-term health consequences. |
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