Trial reportScience (New York, N.Y.)2014
Early childhood investments substantially boost adult health.
Trial report in Science (New York, N.Y.), 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to 2 registered trials, which are not on this map. Cited by 349 papers, 7 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Influence of Prenatal and Early Childhood Home-Visiting by Nurses on Development of Chronic Disease: 29-year Follow-Up of a Randomized Clinical Trial
Development, Usability and Feasibility Pilot Study of a Videogame Aiming to Stimulate Cognitive and Non-cognitive Skills Among Low-income Preschoolers in Chile
Who cites it
349 citing papers in PubMed, 7 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 1,090 citations in OpenAlex.
- Public health interventions to improve the mental health and mental health literacy of young people in resource-limited settings: a systematic review.Frontiers in public health · 2026Pooled it
- Psychometric properties of early childhood development assessment tools in low- and middle-income countries: a systematic review.BMJ open · 2025Pooled it
- Early parenting interventions to prevent internalising problems in children and adolescents: a global systematic review and network meta-analysis.BMJ mental health · 2023Pooled it
- Cash transfer programs and child health and family economic outcomes: a systematic review.Canadian journal of public health = Revue canadienne de sante publique · 2022Pooled it
- Social Risk Interventions and Health Care Utilization for Pediatric Asthma: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.JAMA pediatrics · 2022Pooled it
- The modules of mental health programs implemented in schools in low- and middle-income countries: findings from a systematic literature review.BMC public health · 2020Pooled it
- Can Social Policies Improve Health? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of 38 Randomized Trials.The Milbank quarterly · 2020Pooled it
- The lasting influence of parenting intervention on child behavior: findings from a randomized clinical trial using care for child development guidelines.BMC pediatrics · 2024Trial
- Understanding modifiable caregiver factors contributing to child development among young children in rural Malawi.Maternal & child nutrition · 2024Trial
- Early Home Visits and Health Outcomes in Low-Income Mothers and Offspring: 18-Year Follow-Up of a Randomized Clinical Trial.JAMA network open · 2024Trial
- Outcome of the AVID College Preparatory Program on Adolescent Health: A Randomized Trial.Pediatrics · 2023Trial
- Impact of an Early Childhood Development Intervention on the Mental Health of Female Caregivers: Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Trial.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Trial
- Cognitive, psychosocial, and behaviour gains at age 31 years from the Jamaica early childhood stimulation trial.Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines · 2022Trial
- Effects of Montessori Education on the Academic, Cognitive, and Social Development of Disadvantaged Preschoolers: A Randomized Controlled Study in the French Public-School System.Child development · 2021Trial
- A randomized controlled trial testing the efficacy of a Nurse Home Visiting Program for Pregnant Adolescents.Scientific reports · 2021Trial
- Developmental Care in the Early Years in Pediatric Intensive Care Patients as a Strategy to Mitigate Pediatric Post-Intensive-Care Syndrome: A Narrative Review.Journal of intensive care medicine · 2026Review
- Can weight status in the first year of life predict well-being in the first years of school?International journal of obesity (2005) · 2026Article
- Early-life adversity before age 5 is associated with reduced cardiometabolic health characterized by increased arterial stiffness and inflammation in adolescence.Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association · 2026Article
- Japi 2.0, a gaming platform to stimulate cognitive and socio-emotional skills in early childhood: results of a pilot randomized controlled trial.Child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health · 2026Article
- An implementation strategy bundle to improve home visit quality of the national child development program in Brazil: an implementation feasibility trial.Implementation science communications · 2026Article
289 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 2 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
High-quality early childhood programs have been shown to have substantial benefits in reducing crime, raising earnings, and promoting education. Much less is known about their benefits for adult health. We report on the long-term health effects of one of the oldest and most heavily cited early childhood interventions with long-term follow-up evaluated by the method of randomization: the Carolina Abecedarian Project (ABC). Using recently collected biomedical data, we find that disadvantaged children randomly assigned to treatment have significantly lower prevalence of risk factors for cardiovascular and metabolic diseases in their mid-30s. The evidence is especially strong for males. The mean systolic blood pressure among the control males is 143 millimeters of mercury (mm Hg), whereas it is only 126 mm Hg among the treated. One in four males in the control group is affected by metabolic syndrome, whereas none in the treatment group are affected. To reach these conclusions, we address several statistical challenges. We use exact permutation tests to account for small sample sizes and conduct a parallel bootstrap confidence interval analysis to confirm the permutation analysis. We adjust inference to account for the multiple hypotheses tested and for nonrandom attrition. Our evidence shows the potential of early life interventions for preventing disease and promoting health.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.