title: Early life adversity potentiates the effects of later life stress on cumulative physiological dysregulation.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Previous research indicates that early life adversity may heighten stress reactivity and impair mechanisms for adaptive coping, suggesting that experience of stress in early life may also potentiate adults' physiological vulnerability to stress in later life. The study tested this hypothesis by investigating whether the experience of stressful events and circumstances (SEC) in childhood or adolescence amplified the effect of adulthood SEC on physiological dysregulation (allostatic load, AL) in later midlife.
  
  
  METHODS
  Observational data were used in the present study. Physiological functioning was measured in later midlife (participants' age ranged from 49 to 63 years). Both childhood/adolescence and adulthood SEC were reported retrospectively on the same occasion.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants were 5309 Danish men and women from Copenhagen Aging and Midlife Biobank (CAMB). SEC included socioeconomic and family factors. The AL index was based on nine cardiovascular, metabolic, and immune biomarkers.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Experience of SEC in both early life and adulthood independently predicted higher AL. In men, experience of SEC in early life also potentiated the effect of SEC in adulthood on AL.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results provide further insight into the mechanisms behind the "biological embedding" of childhood stress.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Public Health , University of Copenhagen , Copenhagen , Denmark.
authors.forename: Nadya
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Dich
authors.forename: Åse Marie
authors.initials: ÅM
authors.lastname: Hansen
authors.forename: Kirsten
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Avlund
authors.forename: Rikke
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lund
authors.forename: Erik Lykke
authors.initials: EL
authors.lastname: Mortensen
authors.forename: Helle
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Bruunsgaard
authors.forename: Naja Hulvej
authors.initials: NH
authors.lastname: Rod
mesh_terms: D052636:Allostasis / Q000502:physiology; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000502:physiology; D002097:C-Reactive Protein / Q000032:analysis; D002784:Cholesterol / Q000097:blood; D008076:Cholesterol, HDL / Q000097:blood; D005190:Family / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006442:Glycated Hemoglobin / Q000032:analysis; D006801:Humans; D015850:Interleukin-6 / Q000097:blood; D008016:Life Change Events; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000150:complications* / Q000503:physiopathology; D014280:Triglycerides / Q000097:blood; D049629:Waist-Hip Ratio
chemical_list: D002097:C-Reactive Protein; D002784:Cholesterol; D008076:Cholesterol, HDL; D006442:Glycated Hemoglobin; D015850:Interleukin-6; D014280:Triglycerides; C517652:hemoglobin A1c protein, human
keywords: allostatic load; coping; early life adversity; stress; stress response