Early Life Conditions and Later Life Mortality
Early Life Conditions and Later Life Mortality
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DOI：
10.1007/978-90-481-9996-9_9
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发表时间：
2011-01-01
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Hayward, Mark D.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Montez, Jennifer Karas;Hayward, Mark D.
虽然早期生活条件塑造死亡率的想法并不新鲜，但在过去的二十年里，关于这一主题的研究再次兴起。在我们对这项工作的回顾中，我们权衡了主要因果机制的证据，即，生物印记和途径过程，被认为是儿童状况和成人死亡率之间联系的基础。我们还研究了早期生活中关键的社会和身体暴露如何通过这些机制与成年死亡率相关的证据。借鉴健康和退休研究，我们然后提供这些协会和机制的额外证据。虽然我们的研究结果加强了早期生活条件对理解成人死亡率的重要性，但它们以及以前的文献也突出了关键的概念和分析挑战。例如，协会和机制对特定的社会和身体接触、表现期和健康问题的类型都很敏感。尽管如此，大量证据有力地表明，儿童时期的条件通过印记和途径过程对成人死亡率具有持久的影响。我们认为，在这些协会和机制的变化，应预期在历史上和人群内，因为变化反映了社会历史的差异，在生活过程中的曝光。
Although the idea that early life conditions shape mortality is not new, there has been a resurgence of studies on the topic in the last two decades. In our review of this work, we weigh the evidence for the major causal mechanisms, i.e., biological imprint and pathway processes, thought to underlie the associations between childhood conditions and adult mortality. We also examine the evidence on how key social and physical exposures in early life are associated with adult mortality through these mechanisms. Drawing on the Health and Retirement Study, we then offer additional evidence on these associations and mechanisms. While our results reinforce the importance of early life conditions for understanding adult mortality, they, as well as previous literature, also highlight key conceptual and analytical challenges. Associations and mechanisms are sensitive, for example, to particular social and physical exposures, the period of manifestation, and the type of health problem. Nonetheless, the body of evidence strongly points to childhood conditions having an enduring influence on adult mortality through both imprint and pathway processes. We argue that variability in these associations and mechanisms should be expected both historically and within populations, as variability reflects sociohistorical differences in life-course exposures.