Childhood temperament and long-term sickness absence in adult life.
BACKGROUND
Little is known as to whether childhood temperament is associated with long-term sickness absence in adult life.


OBJECTIVE
To explore the associations between childhood temperament and long-term sickness absence in middle age.


METHODS
The Aberdeen Children of the 1950s study is comprised of 12,150 children born in Aberdeen 1950-55. Teachers completed the Aberdeen-London Child Behaviour Scale (Rutter B) for all participants in 1964. Current employment status was ascertained for 7183 (63.7%) in 2001.


RESULTS
Five and a half per cent of responders classified themselves as 'permanently sick or disabled' at follow-up. 'Often complains of aches and pains' (OR=6.75, 95% CI 1.28-35.5) and 'Often appears miserable or unhappy' (OR=3.81, 95% CI 1.01-14.4) were strongly associated with being permanently sick or disabled following adjustment for year of birth, gender, IQ and father's social class.


CONCLUSIONS
Childhood temperament is strongly associated with sickness absence in middle age.
Henderson
Max
M
Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College London, Department of Psychological Medicine, Weston Education Centre, Cutcombe Road, London SE5 9RJ, UK. m.henderson@iop.kcl.ac.uk
Hotopf
Matthew
M
Leon
David A
DA
D000704:Analysis of Variance; D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior / Q000523:psychology; D004651:Employment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012606:Scotland; D018582:Sick Leave / Q000639:trends; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013315:Stress, Psychological; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013694:Temperament