Childhood adversities, adult risk factors and depressiveness: a population study

Objective: Childhood adversities have been associated with adulthood depressiveness, but the contribution of adult risk factors is seldom described. We examined whether adult risk factors lie on the pathway from childhood adversity to adult depressiveness (pathway hypothesis) or whether the association depends on life events (vulnerability hypothesis).Method: Among 21,101 randomly sampled working-aged respondents [the Health and Social Support in Finland (HeSSup) Study], the hypotheses were tested with logistic regression analysis models studying the associations between Beck Depression Inventory (BDI)-assessed depressiveness and self-reported childhood adversities alone and in combination with recent adverse events.Results: Childhood adversities were consistently associated with depressiveness (women, age-adjusted odds ratio 3.1, 95% confidence intervals 2.6-3.7; men, 2.6, 2.1-3.3), although the risks were decreased by more than 30% after adjustments for adult risk factors such as living alone, education, alcohol consumption, social support and negative affectivity. Childhood adversities combined with recent life events were associated with depressiveness in an additive manner. Women with childhood adversities and recent person-independent events especially had increased vulnerability for depressiveness.Conclusions: The childhood adversity-depressiveness associations were partly mediated by adult risk factors, supporting a pathway from childhood adversities to depressiveness through adult risk factors. Increased vulnerability for depressiveness was found among respondents with childhood adversities in combination with recent death/illness events. The findings emphasize the importance of early risk factors when identifying persons at risk of depression.</p

Sexual activity and perceived health among Finnish middle-aged women

BACKGROUND: An increasing awareness of the need to address sexual and orgasm experiences as part of life quality and an understanding of the great individual differences between women play roles in women's health and medical care across the specialities. Information is lacking as to how negative attitude toward self (NATS) and performance impairment (PI) are associated with sexual activity of middle-aged women. We examined the associations of sexual experience, orgasm experience, and lack of sexual desire with perceived health and potential explanatory variables of NATS and PI. METHODS: Questionnaire was mailed to 2 population-based random samples of menopausal or soon-to-be menopausal women (n = 5510, 70% response) stratified according to age (42–46 and 52–56 years). In multivariate analyses of the associations with the outcome variables, perceived health, NATS, and PI were used as covariates in 6 models in which exercise, menstrual symptoms, and illness indicators were taken into account as well. RESULTS: Sexual activity variables were associated with perceived health. When present, NATS formed associations with sexual and orgasm experiences, whereas strenuous exercise formed associations with orgasm among 42–46-year-old women alone. Strenuous exercise was not associated with orgasm experience among older women. CONCLUSION: NATS and PI are closely tied to orgasm experiences and the meaning of the roles needs to be exposed. Sexual activity deserves to be addressed more actively in patient contact at least with perimenopausal women

Childhood adversities and adult-onset asthma: a cohort study

Conclusions: Adults who report having encountered adversities in childhood may have an increased risk of developing asthma

Childhood adversities and adult-onset asthma: a cohort study

OBJECTIVES: Childhood adversities may be important determinants of later illnesses and poor health behaviour. However, large-scale prospective studies on the associations between childhood adversities and the onset of asthma in adulthood are lacking. DESIGN: Prospective cohort study with 7-year follow-up. SETTING: Nationally representative study. Data were collected from the Health and Social Support (HeSSup) survey and national registers. PARTICIPANTS: The participants represent the Finnish population from the following age groups: 20-24, 30-34, 40-44, and 50-54 years at baseline in 1998 (24 057 survey participants formed the final cohort of this study). The occurrence of childhood adversities was assessed at baseline with a six-item survey scale. The analyses were adjusted for sociodemographic characteristics, behavioural health risks and common mental disorders. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOMES: The survey data were linked to data from national health registers on incident asthma during a 7-year follow-up to define new-onset asthma cases with verified diagnoses. RESULTS: A total of 12 126 (59%) participants reported that they encountered a childhood adversity. Of them 3677 (18% of all) endured three to six adversities. During a follow-up of 7 years, 593 (2.9%) participants were diagnosed with incident asthma. Those who reported three or more childhood adversities had a 1.6-fold (95% CI 1.31 to 2.01) greater risk of asthma compared to those without childhood adversities. This hazard attenuated but remained statistically significant after adjustment for conventional risk factors (HR 1.33; 95% CI 1.06 to 1.67). CONCLUSIONS: Adults who report having encountered adversities in childhood may have an increased risk of developing asthma.Peer reviewe

Non-response in a nationwide follow-up postal survey in Finland : a register-based mortality analysis of respondents and non-respondents of the health and Social Support (HeSSup) Study

OBJECTIVE: To examine difference in mortality between postal survey non-respondents and respondents. DESIGN: A prospective cohort study with baseline survey in 1998 and comprehensive linkage to national mortality registers until 2005, the Health and Social Support study. SETTING: A population-based postal survey of the working-aged population in Finland in 1998. PARTICIPANTS: The original random sample comprised 64 797 working-aged individuals in Finland (20-24, 30-34, 40-44, 50-54 years of age; 32 059 women and 32 716 men), yielding 25 898 (40.0%) responses in the baseline postal survey in 1998. PRIMARY OUTCOME MEASURE: Registry-based primary causes of death encoded with the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10). RESULTS: In women, HR for total mortality was 1.75 (95% CI 1.40 to 2.19) times higher among the non-respondents compared with the respondents. In men, non-response was associated with a 1.41-fold (1.21-1.65) excess risk of total mortality. Non-response associated in certain age groups with deaths due to diseases in women and with deaths due to external causes in men. The most prominent excess mortality was seen for total mortality for both genders and for mortality due to external causes among men. CONCLUSIONS: Postal surveys result in slight underestimation of illness prevalence.Peer reviewe

Low pessimism protects against stroke: the Health and Social Support (HeSSup) prospective cohort study.

International audienceBACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The association between optimism and pessimism and health outcomes has attracted increasing research interest. To date, the association between these psychological variables and risk of stroke remains unclear. We examined the relationship between pessimism and the 7-year incidence of stroke. METHODS: A random sample of 23 216 adults (9480 men, 13 796 women) aged 20 to 54 years completed the pessimism scale in 1998, that is, at study baseline. Fatal and first nonfatal stroke events during a mean follow-up of 7.0 years were documented by linkage to the national hospital discharge and mortality registers leading to 105 events. RESULTS: Unadjusted hazard ratio was 0.44 (95% CI, 0.25 to 0.77) for participants in the lowest quartile (a low pessimism level) when compared with those in the highest quartile (a high pessimism level). After serial adjustments for sociodemographic characteristics, cardiovascular biobehavioral risk factors, depression, general feeling of stressfulness, and ischemic heart disease, the fully adjusted hazard ratio was 0.52 (95% CI, 0.29 to 0.93). CONCLUSIONS: In this population of adult men and women, low level of pessimism had a robust association with reduced incidence of stroke