Does attendance at preschool affect adult health? A systematic review.
BACKGROUND
Early child development interventions can set children on positive social and educational trajectories. The aim of this review was to examine the evidence for the adult health impacts of centre-based preschool interventions for preschoolers.


METHODS
Medline, Embase, ERIC, Psych Info, Sociological Abstracts, the Cochrane Library, C2-SPECTR and the Head Start database were searched (1980-2008), and reference lists were searched for articles missed by the electronic search.


RESULTS
The 12 eligible articles reviewed reported multi-faceted interventions and involved disadvantaged populations in all but one study. Limitations included a restricted range of health outcomes, reliance on self-report measures (11 studies), small sample sizes (nine studies with <100 in each arm) and a relatively young adult age at follow-up. There were positive intervention effects across the majority of behavioural outcomes, and a suggestion of a reduction in symptoms of depression. Non-communicable disease outcomes (e.g. diabetes mellitus) tended to have adverse or near-zero effect estimates.


CONCLUSIONS
The reviewed articles provide some support for the role of early childhood interventions to improve health behaviours but not chronic disease outcomes. Population health researchers should become more involved in the evaluation of preschool interventions as there is great potential for broad population health benefit.
D'Onise
K
K
Sansom Institute for Health Research, University of South Australia, Adelaide SA 5001, Australia. katina.d'onise@postgrads.unisa.edu.au
McDermott
R A
RA
Lynch
J W
JW
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002908:Chronic Disease / Q000453:epidemiology; D018479:Early Intervention, Educational / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015444:Exercise; D015438:Health Behavior; D006296:Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006304:Health Status; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008603:Mental Health; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology