A major international study involving the University of Plymouth 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 University of Plymouth, 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.
Professor Clive Sabel
