Childhood adversity linked to COVID-19 deaths, hospitalizations in maturity

Individuals who endured childhood adversity, like abuse or neglect, were more prone to be hospitalized or die from COVID-19 in maturity, a brand new University of Pittsburgh study found. Specifically, higher self-reported childhood adversity was linked to 12-25% higher odds of COVID-19 hospitalization and mortality.

While age, sex, ethnicity, health, and sociodemographic aspects have been related to such outcomes throughout the pandemic, this was the primary study finding a link between these COVID-19 outcomes and childhood neglect and abuse.

Using the UK Biobank in Great Britain, a team -; lead by Jamie L. Hanson, a researcher in Pitt’s Learning Research & Development Center and an assistant professor in psychology within the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences -; took a deep dive into information provided by greater than 151,200 adults of middle age or older. What the numbers showed was that folks who reported “adversity” comparable to abuse or neglect while children were more prone to die or be hospitalized from COVID-19.

The study was published Nov. 1 within the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, the British Medical Association’s journal specializing in different social determinants of health.

“These findings highlight how trauma early in life can have long-lasting impacts on health a long time later,” Hanson said. “We all know that COVID-19 is expounded to excessive hospitalization and death within the UK and in the US. And there is emerging research finding that facing adversity, abuse or neglect, early in life, could have sizeable effects on physical health.

“But nobody had tried to attach these two trends. Knowing a bit more about someone’s early development could possibly be essential to assist reduce disparities in COVID-19.”

While Hanson and his co-authors maintain that their work opens the door for more pinpointed and global studies, they consider their findings show there could possibly be a necessity for policies and interventions to minimize COVID-19 impacts in individuals who have suffered from such childhood adversity.

We might have targeted interventions for people and certain communities affected by childhood adversity to minimize the pandemic’s lasting impact. Adversity may result in risk for negative outcomes and the potential to have long-COVID. We’d like to finish more work to know how adversity gets ‘under the skin’ and increases vulnerability to poor health after COVID-19 infections.”

Jamie L. Hanson, researcher in Pitt’s Learning Research & Development Center

In other words, because the co-authors wrote, not only COVID-19 but such findings could possibly be used “to limit adversity-related negative outcomes with future pandemics.”