A recent British study indicates that our mental health in adolescence and childhood influences certain biological markers. However, these are markers concerning life in adulthood as well as life expectancy.
Mental health problems in childhood and adolescence have harmful consequences later in life. Researchers from the University of London (United Kingdom) started with this finding in their study published in the Journal of American Medicine Association on September 30, 2020. The consequences are multiple:psychological distress, family instability, low level schooling, unemployment and tendencies to commit crimes.
Nevertheless, several parameters remain relatively unstudied, such as the impact of poor mental health on biological health adulthood. Links have already been established, in particular with a low sports practice, a high consumption of alcohol and tobacco as well as a significant socio-economic adversity. In terms of mortality, there are links with suicide, overdoses, non-voluntary injuries or even homicides.
The study in question concerns the UK National Child Development Cohort. Originally, it included 17,415 individuals born in 1958 . Parents and teachers rated their mental health using the Rutter A scale. This is a tool whose purpose is to quantitatively measure the difficulties and behaviors of children and adolescents.
After the evaluations, the researchers highlighted four groups. The first concerned individuals who had no conduct or affective disorder at all stages of their childhood and adolescence. At the level of group II, we have individuals who had emotional problems and especially conduct problems from the age of 16 . Members of group III are volunteers who had emotional and conduct problems during childhood with improvement thereafter. As for the last group, it is about people who have had problems at all stages of their childhood and adolescence.
According to the researchers, group I only served as a reference. The results indicate that members of group II and IV have less favorable biomarkers to good health in adulthood. This is accompanied by a higher risk of premature death. Several factors are added according to the researchers such as sex, birth weight, maternal smoking during pregnancy, maternal age, breastfeeding or body mass index.
It should be noted that these results do not firmly establish a causal link. Indeed, the study concerns only one country and this one is Western. However, the authors believe that the causal link is plausible and generalizable to other cohorts . In any case, this study seems to say that by intervening more effectively in the mental health of young people, it would be possible to improve their lives as adults.
