scholarly journals Childhood circumstances shape multimorbidity and functional limitation in the old age in England: a life course pathway model

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leo Singer
Keyword(s):  
Social Class ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Functional Limitation ◽  
Sensitive Period ◽  
Pathway Model ◽  
Latent Factors ◽  
Adverse Experiences ◽  
Material Conditions ◽  
Excellent Tool

The study presents a pathway model of the risk of multimorbidity and functional limitation from childhood to old age. Childhood circumstances, measured as parents’ social class, adverse experiences and child’s health, influenced multimorbidity and functional limitation at old age indirectly via material, psychosocial and behavioural pathways. These pathways acted as magnifiers of early inequalities: they enhanced the unequal impacts of the pre-existing differences between individuals in socio-economic position, psychological connections and health. The pathway effects measured at age 50-64 years were larger than the total effects of childhood social class, adverse experiences and child’s health. Thus pre-retirement appears to be an important period for the health of ageing adults in England. However, in people suffering from complex multimorbidity the total effect of the adverse experiences of abuse and family dysfunction in childhood surpassed the effect of adult psychosocial circumstances. This suggests an early-life sensitive period for this outcome. The strength of the paper is that childhood circumstances were approached from a broader angle than the usual focus on either the material conditions or extreme experiences of children. The framework is based on a complex mediation analysis with both parallel and serial mediators where the SEM framework with latent factors is an excellent tool to handle multiple regression relationships and measurement error.

Protector and Casualty

2019 ◽  
pp. 495-522
Author(s):  
Meg Dennison ◽  
Katie McLaughlin
Keyword(s):  
Early Life ◽  
Positive Emotion ◽  
Positive Emotions ◽  
Protective Factor ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Positive Emotionality ◽  
Early Life Adversity ◽  
Adverse Experiences ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Positive Valence

Early-life adversity is associated with elevated risk for a wide range of mental disorders across the lifespan, including those that involve disruptions in positive emotionality. Although extensive research has evaluated heightened negative emotionality and threat processing as developmental mechanisms linking early-life adversity with mental health problems, emerging evidence suggests that positive emotions play an integral, but complex, role in the association of early-life adversity with psychopathology. This chapter identifies two pathways through which positive emotion influences risk for psychopathology following early-life adversity. First, experiences of early-life adversity may alter the development of the “positive valence system”, which in turn increases risk for psychopathology. Second, the association between adversity and psychopathology may vary as a function of individual differences in positive emotionality. We consider how the development of positive emotionality—measured at psychological, behavioral and neurobiological levels—may be altered by early-life adversity, creating a diathesis for psychopathology. We additionally review evidence for the role of positive emotion, measured at multiple levels, as a protective factor that buffers against the adverse impacts of adversity. In integrating these two roles, it is proposed that characteristics of environmental adversity, including developmental timing, duration, and type of adversity, may differentially impact the development of positive emotionality, leading to a better understanding of risks associated with specific adverse experiences. Methodological issues regarding the measurement of adverse environments as well as implications for early intervention and treatment are discussed.

scholarly journals Annuity Markets and Capital Accumulation

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shantanu Bagchi ◽  
James A. Feigenbaum
Keyword(s):  
Old Age ◽  
Capital Stock ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Capital Accumulation ◽  
Substitution Effect ◽  
Income Effect ◽  
Substitution Effects ◽  
Income Effects ◽  
Annuity Markets ◽  
The One

AbstractWe examine how the absence of annuities in financial markets affects capital accumulation in a two-period overlapping generations model. Our findings indicate that the effect on capital is ambiguous in general equilibrium, because there are two competing mechanisms at work. On the one hand, the absence of annuities increases the price of old-age consumption relative to the price of early-life consumption. This induces a substitution effect that reduces saving and capital, and an income effect that has the opposite effect as households want to consume less when young, causing them to save more. On the other hand, accidental bequests originate from the assets of the deceased under missing annuity markets. The bequest received in early life always has a positive income effect on saving, but the bequest received in old age, conditional on survival, is effectively a partial annuity with both substitution and income effects. We find that when the desire to smooth consumption is high, the income effects dominate, so the capital stock always increases when annuity markets are missing. However, when the desire to smooth consumption is low, the substitution effects dominate, and the capital stock decreases with missing annuity markets.

scholarly journals The impact of early life factors on cognitive function in old age: The Hordaland Health Study (HUSK)

2013 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jens Christoffer Skogen ◽  
Simon Øverland ◽  
A David Smith ◽  
Arnstein Mykletun ◽  
Robert Stewart
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Function ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Health Study ◽  
Early Life Factors ◽  
The Impact

Early life factors as predictors of age-associated deficit accumulation across 17 years from midlife into old age

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Markus J Haapanen ◽  
Juulia Jylhävä ◽  
Lauri Kortelainen ◽  
Tuija M Mikkola ◽  
Minna Salonen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Old Age ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Mixed Model ◽  
Linear Mixed Model ◽  
Frailty Index ◽  
Rate Of Change ◽  
Birth Cohort Study ◽  
Maternal Body Mass Index ◽  
Early Life Factors ◽  
Early Life Exposures

Abstract Background Early life exposures have been associated with the risk of frailty in old age. We investigated whether early life exposures predict the level and rate of change in a frailty index (FI) from midlife into old age. Methods A linear mixed model analysis was performed using data from three measurement occasions over 17 years in participants from the Helsinki Birth Cohort Study (n=2000) aged 57-84 years. A 41-item FI was calculated on each occasion. Information on birth size, maternal body mass index (BMI), growth in infancy and childhood, childhood socioeconomic status (SES), and early life stress (wartime separation from both parents), was obtained from registers and healthcare records. Results At age 57 years the mean FI level was 0.186 and the FI levels increased by 0.34 percent/year from midlife into old age. Larger body size at birth associated with a slower increase in FI levels from midlife into old age. Per 1kg greater birth weight the increase in FI levels per year was -0.087 percentage points slower (95% CI=-0.163, -0.011; p=0.026). Higher maternal BMI was associated with a higher offspring FI level in midlife and a slower increase in FI levels into old age. Larger size, faster growth from infancy to childhood, and low SES in childhood were all associated with a lower FI level in midlife but not with its rate of change. Conclusions Early life factors seem to contribute to disparities in frailty from midlife into old age. Early life factors may identify groups that could benefit from frailty prevention, optimally initiated early in life.

scholarly journals Evidence for a sensitive period in the effects of early life stress on hippocampal volume

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathryn L. Humphreys ◽  
Lucy S. King ◽  
Matthew D. Sacchet ◽  
M. Catalina Camacho ◽  
Natalie L. Colich ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Stress ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Early Life Stress ◽  
Hippocampal Volume ◽  
Sensitive Period

scholarly journals Early-life circumstances and the risk of function-limiting long-term conditions in later life

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-180
Author(s):  
Matthew H. Iveson ◽  
Chris Dibben ◽  
Ian J. Deary
Keyword(s):  
Life Course ◽  
Cognitive Ability ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Economic Status ◽  
Functional Limitation ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Socio Economic Status ◽  
Childhood Cognitive Ability ◽  
The Life Course

Older adults are particularly prone to function-limiting health issues that adversely affect their well-being. Previous work has identified factors from across the life course –childhood socio-economic status, childhood cognitive ability and education – that predict later-life functional outcomes. However, the independence of these contributions is unclear as later-in-the-life-course predictors are themselves affected by earlier ones. The present study capitalised on the recent linkage of the Scottish Mental Survey 1947 with the Scottish Longitudinal Study, using path analyses to examine the direct and indirect associations between life-course predictors and the risk of functional limitation at ages 55 (N = 2,374), 65 (N = 1,971) and 75 (N = 1,534). The odds of reporting a function-limiting long-term condition increased across later life. At age 55, reporting a functional limitation was significantly less likely in those with higher childhood socio-economic status, higher childhood cognitive ability and higher educational attainment; these associations were only partly mediated by other predictors. At age 65, adult socio-economic status emerged as a mediator of several associations, although direct associations with childhood socio-economic status and childhood cognitive ability were still observed. At age 75, only childhood socio-economic status and adult socio-economic status directly predicted the risk of a functional limitation, particularly those associated with disease or illness. A consistent pattern and direction of associations was observed with self-rated health more generally. These results demonstrate that early-life and adult circumstances are associated with functional limitations later in life, but that these associations are partly a product of complex mediation between life-course factors.

scholarly journals On the effects of castration and ovariotomy upon sheep

1912 ◽  
Vol 85 (576) ◽  
pp. 27-32 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Old Age ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Complete Removal ◽  
Reproductive Organs ◽  
Fallow Deer ◽  
The Body ◽  
Male Characters ◽  
Game Birds ◽  
Male Plumage ◽  
The Face

It is well known that castration, when performed in early life and before sexual maturity has been reached, has a marked effect not only in inhibiting the development of the accessory male organs, but in changing the general conformation of the body. Thus in castrated guinea-pigs, oxen, and capons, as well as in eunuchs, the bones of the limbs tend to be abnormally long, this result depending upon an arrest in the ossification of epiphyses. The secondary male characters are also in many cases suppressed, so that there is an apparent approximation to the female type. Thus in red deer if the testes are removed in quite immature animals the antlers fail to make their appearance, and in fallow deer castration at birth limits the horn formation to the development of single dugs. Secondary sexual characters, however, are not always correlated with the presence of the essential reproductive organs, even in mammals. Thus the withers in the gelding resemble those of the horse rather than those of the mare, in which the witheres are lower. Moreover, in certain varieties of cattle in Italy, the horns in the ox, if castraction has been carried out young, are far longer than those of either the bull or the cow. Ovariotomy in the female is often said to lead to the assumption of male characters, but there is little experimental evidence that this is actually the case. In the human female complete removal of the ovaries, if carried out in early life, besides preventing the onset of puberty and the occurrence of menstruation, produces effects on the general form and appearance, individuals so operated upon being said, in some cases, to show resemblances to men. Abnormalities in the ovaries have been described as producing similar results. Thus, Rörig records three cases in which female deer possessed horns, and were shown on dissection to have had abnormal ovaries. Darwin states that female deer in old age have been known to acquire horns. It Wallace says that in old mares the neck tends to acquire an arch as in the stallion. The occasional growth of hair on the face in old women is a phenomenon of the same kind. Similar observations have been made upon birds, especially ducks, poultry, and game birds. Darwin mentions the case of a duck which, when 10 years old, acquired the plumage of the drake. Other cases are those of hens which in old age assumed secondary male characters and started to crow. Hunter mentions a hen pheasant which had male plumage associated with an abnormal ovary. Numerous other instances have been described, but it is not apparent that such an acquirement of male characters by female individuals is always correlated with an abnormality in the reproductive organs. According to Gurney the assumption of male plumage is generally associated with sterility in female gallinaceous birds, but not, as a rule, in female passerine birds. Thus Gurney describes a hen chaffinch with male plumage and a number of developing eggs.

scholarly journals Early life stress alters transcriptomic patterning across reward circuitry in male and female mice

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine Jensen Peña ◽  
Milo Smith ◽  
Aarthi Ramakrishnan ◽  
Hannah M. Cates ◽  
Rosemary C. Bagot ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Stress ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Cortical Plasticity ◽  
Early Life Stress ◽  
Stress Sensitivity ◽  
Sensitive Period ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Reward Circuitry ◽  
Female Mice ◽  
Increase Risk

Abstract Abuse, neglect, and other forms of early life stress (ELS) significantly increase risk for psychiatric disorders including depression. In this study, we show that ELS in a postnatal sensitive period increases sensitivity to adult stress in female mice, consistent with our earlier findings in male mice. We used RNA-sequencing in the ventral tegmental area, nucleus accumbens, and prefrontal cortex of male and female mice to show that adult stress is distinctly represented in the brain’s transcriptome depending on ELS history. We identify: 1) biological pathways disrupted after ELS and associated with increased behavioral stress sensitivity, 2) putative transcriptional regulators of the effect of ELS on adult stress response, and 3) subsets of primed genes specifically associated with latent behavioral changes. We also provide transcriptomic evidence that ELS increases sensitivity to future stress through enhancement of known programs of cortical plasticity.

scholarly journals Childhood infectious diseases and old age cognitive functioning: a nationally representative sample of community-dwelling older adults

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
A. Rotstein ◽  
S. Z. Levine
Keyword(s):  
Risk Factors ◽  
Older Adults ◽  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
Cognitive Functioning ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Representative Sample ◽  
Community Dwelling ◽  
Sensitivity Analyses ◽  
Nationally Representative

ABSTRACT Background: Cumulative evidence suggests that health-related risk factors during midlife and old-age are associated with cognitive impairment. However, studies are needed to clarify the association between early-life risk factors and impaired cognitive functioning to increment existing knowledge. Objective: To examine the association between childhood infectious diseases and late-life cognitive functioning in a nationally representative sample of older adults. Participants: Eligible respondents were 2994 community-dwelling individuals aged 65–85. Measurements: Cognitive functioning was assessed using the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). Childhood infectious diseases (i.e. chicken pox, measles, and mumps) were self-reported. The study covariates were age, sex, highest educational level achieved, smoking status, body mass index, and depression. The primary statistical analysis examined the association between the number of childhood infectious diseases and total MMSE scores, accounting for all study covariates. Regression models of progressive complexity were examined for parsimony. The robustness of the primary results was tested in 17 sensitivity analyses. Results: The most parsimonious model was a linear adjusted model (Bayesian Information Criterion = 12646.09). Late-life cognitive functioning significantly improved as the number of childhood infectious diseases increased (β = 0.18; 95% CI = 0.11, 0.26; p < 0.001). This effect was not significantly attenuated in all sensitivity analyses. Conclusion: The current study results are consistent with prior ecological findings indicating that some childhood infectious diseases are associated with better cognitive functioning in old-age. This points to an early-life modifiable risk factor associated with older-life cognitive functioning. Our results may reflect selective mortality and/or beneficial effects via hormetic processes.

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