SynthesisPsychoneuroendocrinology2023
Parent-child separation and cardiometabolic outcomes and risk factors in adulthood: A systematic review.
Synthesis in Psychoneuroendocrinology, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
What it found
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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.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 10 citations in OpenAlex.
- Long-term molecular embedding of early life adversity: leukocyte DNA methylation and gene expression associations from childhood to young adulthood.Epigenomics · 2026Article
- Effects of intergenerational parent-child separation on early eruption of permanent molar and telomere length: a cross-sectional study among Chinese children aged 3-6 years.BMC oral health · 2026Article
- Mapping the evidence on outcomes of childhood out-of-home care: A scoping review of reviews.PloS one · 2026Article
- Parental imprisonment, childhood behavioral problems, and adolescent and young adult cardiometabolic risk: results from a prospective Australian birth cohort study.Health & justice · 2025Article
- Cardiovascular disease in adults with a history of out-of-home care during childhood: a systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies.The Lancet regional health. Europe · 2024Article
- Cardiovascular Disease Events in Adults with a History of State Care in Childhood: Pooling of Unpublished Results from 9 Cohort Studies.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundParent-child separation has been associated with negative mental health across childhood and adulthood, yet little is known about the long-term impacts for cardiovascular health. This systematic review synthesized and evaluated the quality of the literature examining the association between exposures to parent-child separation and cardiometabolic outcomes in adulthood.
methodsFollowing a registered protocol, online databases (Pubmed, PsycInfo, and Web of Science) were searched for relevant studies. Studies were included if they (a) defined the exposure before age 18 as institutionalization, foster care placement, parental incarceration, separation due to parents migrating for economic reasons, or asylum and war; and (b) quantified the association between parent-child separation and cardiometabolic events and diagnoses (e.g., coronary heart disease, diabetes) and risk factors (e.g., body mass index, fat distribution, serum-based metabolic markers, inflammatory markers in adulthood (≥ age 18). Studies lacking an unexposed comparison group were excluded. The risk for bias in each study was assessed with a modified Newcastle-Ottawa Scale.
resultsOf the 1938 studies identified, 13 met our inclusion criteria. Two of the four studies examining associations between parent-child separation and cardiometabolic events and diagnoses found positive associations with coronary heart disease and diabetes. Amongst the 13 studies examining associations with any type of adult cardiometabolic risk factors, eight studies reported at least one positive association. Sub-analyses considering separate reasons for parent-child separation provided clearer insights: War evacuation was associated with hypertension and high blood pressure across four studies from the same cohort; out-of home care experiences largely evidenced null results across five different studies, and two studies on parental incarceration suggested positive associations with elevated inflammation, BMI and blood pressure.
conclusionsThe connections between parent-child separation and adult cardiometabolic outcomes and risk factors are currently inconsistent. The results may depend on the reason for separation, age of assessment, analytic differences and other psychosocial variables that are often unmeasured in this literature.
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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.