Childhood adversity linked to higher risk of death in young adulthood

Researchers believe the new study raises questions around how policy can improve opportunities for children and young people
A stock image depicting a group of young people to illustrate a story about a study raising questions around how policy can improve opportunities for children and young people

Childhood adversity linked to higher risk of death in young adulthood

Researchers believe the new study raises questions around how policy can improve opportunities for children and young people
A major international study involving the Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»­ has found that children exposed to multiple forms of adversity face a substantially higher risk of dying in young adulthood.
The research, led by the University of Copenhagen and published in The Lancet Regional Health – Europe, is based on a national register of more than 1.2 million people born in Denmark between 1981 and 2001.
It found 7,320 of those on the register died before the age of 42, and that individual health-related factors, family adversity and living in a deprived neighbourhood all increased the possibility of people dying young.
The researchers say the findings demonstrate how different forms of childhood adversity can create particularly vulnerable groups and potentially deepen health inequalities across the course of people’s lives.
The study’s authors include Professor Clive Sabel, Professor of Big Data and Spatial Science at the Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»­, and Co-Director of the Centre for Place.
He has previously led research showing people who experience a significant number of moves before the age of 15 are more likely to be diagnosed with depression in later life (read more: Multiple moves during childhood can increase the risks of depression in later life).
For the current study, he contributed information about neighbourhood-level deprivation which added to the individual and family experiences of adversity.

The data gives us an unusually detailed picture of how individual, family and neighbourhood circumstances can come together.

Our findings reinforce that we cannot separate children’s experiences from the places in which they grow up, and shows how layers of adversity are associated with health later in life. Denmark and the UK are different societies, with the UK having greater extremes of deprivation and much more diversity. But this research shows the value of being able to understand people’s experiences, and highlights a potential need for better UK data linking childhood experiences, health and place.

Clive SabelProfessor Clive Sabel
Professor of Big Data and Spatial Science

Professor Sabel also says the findings raise important questions for communities in the South West, such as how place-based policy can improve opportunities for children and young people while also addressing the wider circumstances that shape their lives.
In that sense, he believes the study comes at a pertinent time with considerable investment being planned for Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»­ – including money from the UK Government for programmes around defence, health and community regeneration – that will foster better education, skills and long-term opportunities for young people.

For people who are simply surviving, the choices that others may take for granted – having good food, a warm and safe home, a secure environment for their children or access to opportunities – can be incredibly difficult. If we want to reduce health inequalities in our communities, we need to consider the environments in which children grow up. So we need to make the most of opportunities to think about how investment in education, skills, communities and social value can translate into better opportunities for young people across our region.

Professor Clive Sabel
  • The full study – Rod et al: Multilayered childhood adversity and mortality: a population-based cohort study of 1.2 million individuals – is published in The Lancet Regional Health – Europe, DOI: .
 
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