ArticleBMC public health2013
Childhood adversity as a risk for cancer: findings from the 1958 British birth cohort study.
Article in BMC public health, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 64 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
64 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 136 citations in OpenAlex.
- Links of Adversity in Childhood With Mental and Physical Health Outcomes: A Systematic Review of Longitudinal Mediating and Moderating Mechanisms.Trauma, violence & abuse · 2023Pooled it
- Health and financial costs of adverse childhood experiences in 28 European countries: a systematic review and meta-analysis.The Lancet. Public health · 2021Pooled it
- Life course health consequences and associated annual costs of adverse childhood experiences across Europe and North America: a systematic review and meta-analysis.The Lancet. Public health · 2019Pooled it
- The Association Between Adverse Childhood Experiences and Risk of Cancer in Adulthood: A Systematic Review of the Literature.Pediatrics · 2016Pooled it
- Long-term impact of childhood exposure to interparental physical violence on cancer risk in adulthood: a prospective cohort study.European journal of psychotraumatology · 2026Article
- Emerging Perspectives on Adverse Childhood Experiences and Brain Cancer Immunotherapy.Cancers · 2026Article
- Exploring the link between adverse childhood experiences and cancer development - insights and intervention recommendations from a scoping review.Npj mental health research · 2025Article
- Parental loss at age birth to 21 years and daughters' breast cancer and tumor characteristics.JNCI cancer spectrum · 2025Article
- ACE Enquiry in Primary care: A Qualitative Exploration of the Perspective of General Practitioners in Northern Ireland.Journal of child & adolescent trauma · 2025Article
- An Emerging Role for Gut-Brain Signaling Involving Ghrelin in Chronic Stress.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2025Review
- Experience of pre-suicidal suffering: insights from suicide attempt survivors.International journal of qualitative studies on health and well-being · 2024Article
- Lifetime employment trajectories and cancer.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Lifetime Employment Trajectories and Cancer: A Population-Based Cohort Study.Research square · 2024Article
- Exploring the associations between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and adolescent cancer risk behaviours in the ALSPAC cohort.BMC public health · 2024Article
- The Yin and Yang of the oxytocin and stress systems: opposites, yet interdependent and intertwined determinants of lifelong health trajectories.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2024Article
- Effects of trauma history on cancer-related screening, diagnosis, and treatment.The Lancet. Oncology · 2023Review
- Early-life adversities and later-life reproductive patterns in women with fully traced reproductive history.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Cancer burden among adolescents and young adults in relation to childhood adversity: a nationwide life-course cohort study of 1.2 million individuals.The Lancet regional health. Europe · 2023Article
- Childhood adversity is associated with hospitalisations and survival following external causes and non-communicable diseases: a 46-year follow-up of a Stockholm birth cohort.Journal of epidemiology and community health · 2023Article
- Can adverse childhood experiences predict chronic health conditions? Development of trauma-informed, explainable machine learning models.Frontiers in public health · 2023Article
4 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 5 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundTo analyse whether Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) are associated with an increased risk of cancer.
methodsThe National child development study (NCDS) is a prospective birth cohort study with data collected over 50 years. The NCDS included all live births during one week in 1958 (n=18558) in Great Britain. Self-reported cancer incidence was based on 444 participants reporting having had cancer at some point and 5694 reporting never having cancer. ACE was measured using reports of: 1) child in care, 2) physical neglect, 3) child's or family's contact with the prison service, 4) parental separation due to divorce, death or other, 5) family experience of mental illness & 6) family experience of substance abuse. The resulting variable had three categories, no ACEs/ one ACE/ 2+ACEs and was used to test for a relationship with cancer. Information on socioeconomic characteristics, pregnancy and birth were extracted as potential confounders. Information on adult health behaviours, socioeconomic environment, psychological state and age at first pregnancy were added to the models. Multivariate models were run using multiply-imputed data to account for missing data in the cohort.
resultsThe odds of having a cancer before 50 y among women increased twofold for those who had 2+ ACEs versus those with no ACEs, after adjusting for adult factors and early life confounders (OR: 2.1, 95% CI: 1.42-3.21, p<0.001).
conclusionThese findings suggest that cancer risk may be influenced by exposure to stressful conditions and events early on in life. This is potentially important in furthering our understanding of cancer aetiology, and consequently in redirecting scientific research and developing appropriate prevention policies.
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