title: Height deficit in early adulthood following substantiated childhood maltreatment: A birth cohort study.
abstract: Early life stress including childhood maltreatment has been associated with reduced head circumference and/or brain size, cognitive, and academic deficits in children and adolescents. However, little is known about the effect of childhood maltreatment on height, especially in early adulthood. This study was designed to examine the association between confirmed cases of multiple or subtypes of childhood maltreatment and stunted growth in young adulthood controlling for perinatal and familial confounding factors. A total of 2661 (48.4% female) young adults from the Mater Hospital-University Study of Pregnancy (MUSP) had data on standardised height-for-age score measurement as part of physical assessment at the 21-year follow-up. Prospectively substantiated cases of childhood maltreatment, 0-14 years of age, were linked to the MUSP dataset. Ethical approval was obtained from the Human Ethics Review Committee of The University of Queensland and the Mater Hospital. Multiple regression analyses were performed to determine the effects of childhood maltreatment on height in young adults. Childhood physical or emotional abuse and neglect were significantly associated with a deficit in height in young adulthood after controlling for perinatal and familial confounders. Multiple incidents of childhood maltreatment also were associated with a deficit in height.
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health, The University of Queensland, Public Health Building, Herston 4006, Queensland, Australia. Electronic address: amanuel.abajobir@uqconnect.edu.au.
authors.forename: Amanuel Alemu
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Abajobir
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine, University of Queensland, Princess Alexandra Hospital, 199 Ipswich Road, Woolloongabba 4102, Queensland, Australia; Departments of Psychiatry, Community Health and Epidemiology, Dalhousie University, Canada.
authors.forename: Steve
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kisely
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health, The University of Queensland, Public Health Building, Herston 4006, Queensland, Australia.
authors.forename: Gail
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Williams
authors.affiliation: Department of Paediatrics, Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA.
authors.forename: Lane
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Strathearn
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health, The University of Queensland, Public Health Building, Herston 4006, Queensland, Australia; School of Social Sciences, The University of Queensland, St Lucia 4072, Queensland, Australia; Queensland Alcohol and Drug Research and Education Centre, The University of Queensland, Herston 4006, Queensland, Australia.
authors.forename: Jake Moses
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Najman
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002649:Child Abuse / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004392:Dwarfism / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011793:Queensland; D012044:Regression Analysis; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D013315:Stress, Psychological; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Cohort study; Height deficit; Substantiated childhood maltreatment; Young adulthood