Child maltreatment, psychopathological symptoms, and onset of diabetes mellitus, hypothyroidism and COPD in adulthood

Abstract

The associations between retrospectively-reported CM and physical health outcomes in adulthood are partially driven by psychopathological symptoms in adulthood.

Retrospectively reported childhood adversity is associated with asthma and chronic bronchitis, independent of mental health

“…The potential confounding and mediating variables, age, sex, parental history of psychiatric problems/asthma/dementia, education, smoking, social support, and respondent's mental health, were chosen based on a priori knowledge of the correlates of childhood adversity and asthma and chronic bronchitis [1,5,7,8,11,[23][24][25][66][67][68]. With reference to the literature on mediation analysis, if there are any measured variables that may confound the mental healthasthma/chronic bronchitis association (e.g., education, smoking, and social support) and are affected by childhood adversity, then they should be included in the multivariable regression model as confounding variables.…”

“…Several population-based studies have shown that childhood adversity is associated with an increased risk of stress-related physical health outcomes, such as asthma and chronic bronchitis later in life [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]. The role of mental health in the association of childhood adversity with onset of asthma and chronic bronchitis has been hypothesized in two ways: (1) mediation, whereby childhood adversity is associated with an increased risk of mental health problems, which in turn are associated with an increased risk of asthma and chronic bronchitis [8] (figure 1a); and (2) confounding and differential recall bias, i.e., psychological state of respondents at the time of reporting childhood adversity [7] may confound the association of retrospective childhood adversity with self-reported asthma and chronic bronchitis [1] (figure 1b). When considering the mediation hypothesis, childhood adversity can certainly affect mental health [8,9], while simultaneously affecting onset of asthma and chronic bronchitis via psychogenic relationships [1,3,7,8,[10][11][12].…”

“…This could imply that mental health in adulthood represents a continuation or a recurrence of childhood or adolescent mental health. Accordingly, mental health may mediate the association of childhood adversity with asthma and chronic bronchitis, even if it is measured in adulthood [8]. The association of childhood adversity with a wide range of psychiatric disorders is wellestablished [4,8,[18][19][20][21][22][23][24].…”

“…Accordingly, mental health may mediate the association of childhood adversity with asthma and chronic bronchitis, even if it is measured in adulthood [8]. The association of childhood adversity with a wide range of psychiatric disorders is wellestablished [4,8,[18][19][20][21][22][23][24]. In turn, several previous studies have shown that poor mental health is associated (directly or indirectly) with an increased risk of asthma and chronic bronchitis [5,11,[25][26][27][28][29][30][31], and that indicators of mental health mediate the association of childhood adversity with asthma and chronic bronchitis [1,5,8,11,25].…”

Confounding, Mediation, or Independent Effect? Childhood Psychological Abuse, Mental Health, Mood/Psychological State, COPD, and Migraine

“…It is not always possible to measure the underlying mental or emotional state on which the survey responses are based (Stommel & Wills, 2004). While there is ample evidence to suggest that “mental health” mediates the association between childhood adversity and COPD and migraine (Sheikh, 2018a) and that a person’s current “mood/psychological state” may confound this relationship (Sheikh et al, 2016b), mental health and mood/psychological state are two different, yet partly overlapping constructs. Since these constructs overlap, it is difficult to separate the mediation mechanism from the confounding mechanism (Sheikh, 2018d).…”