Abstract
Aim
We aim to examine the association of traumatic events experienced in childhood, adulthood, and cumulative traumatic events experienced from childhood to adulthood, with the risk of all-cause dementia, including Alzheimer's disease (AD) and vascular dementia (VD), while considering the roles of sex.
Subject and methods
We used data from the UK Biobank cohort study and 145,558 participants were included. Frequency of traumatic events (including emotional abuse, physical abuse, and sexual abuse) experienced in childhood and adulthood were collected. Cumulative number and type of traumatic events experienced from childhood to adulthood were also calculated. We used Cox proportional hazards models to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for the association between traumatic events and risk of all-cause dementia. Sex-specific associations were also analyzed.
Results
Compared to people who did not experience traumatic events in their life course, those who often experienced emotional, physical, and sexual abuse in childhood were associated with a higher risk of all-cause dementia, with HRs (95% CI) of 2.23 (1.34, 3.71), 3.16 (1.81, 5.53), and 3.23 (1.52, 6.89), respectively. Corresponding HRs (95% CI) in people who experienced traumatic events in adulthood were 1.42 (1.11, 1.82), 1.96 (0.97, 3.98), and 3.13 (1.18, 8.27), respectively. After cumulative type of traumatic events were calculated from childhood to adulthood, we found that people who experienced both emotional and physical abuse in childhood had the highest risk of all-cause dementia in later life with HRs (95% CI) of 1.94 (1.00–3.78).
Conclusion
Traumatic events experienced in both childhood and adulthood were related to an increased risk of dementia. People who experienced both emotional and physical abuse in childhood had the highest risk of all-cause dementia.
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Data availability
UK Biobank data are available via http://www.ukbiobank.ac.uk. Syntax for the generation of derived variables and for the analysis used for this study will be submitted to UK Biobank for record.
Code availability
Not applicable.
Abbreviations
- AD :
-
Alzheimer's disease
- VD :
-
Vascular dementia
- HRs :
-
Hazard ratios
- CI :
-
Confidence intervals
- ICD-10 :
-
International Classification of Diseases…10th revision
- MET :
-
Metabolic equivalent
- CVD :
-
Cardiovascular disease
- SNPs :
-
Single-nucleotide polymorphisms
- PH :
-
Proportional hazards
- PERM :
-
Percentage of excess risk mediated
- PTSD :
-
Posttraumatic stress disorder
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Acknowledgements
This research has been conducted using the UK Biobank resource. We are grateful to UK Biobank participants.
Funding
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (82273702), Science Fund Program for Excellent Young Scholars of Shandong Province (Over-seas)(2022HWYQ-030), Taishan Scholars Project Special Fund (No.tsqnz20221103), and the Qilu Young Scholar (Tier-1) program (202099000066).
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DZ and XZ conceived the study and contributed to interpretation of the results. ZX did statistical analyses and drafted the manuscript. ML, HS, CZ, CF, QW, CD, WH, XZ and DZ contributed to the critical revision of the manuscript.
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All participants in the UK Biobank provided written informed consent.
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UK Biobank received ethical approval from the National Research Ethics Service of the UK National Health Service (reference 11/NW/0382).
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The data were provided by the UK Biobank, and all data were anonymous.
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Xie, Z., Li, M., Sun, H. et al. Childhood, adulthood, and cumulative traumatic events experienced from childhood to adulthood and dementia risk: a population-based cohort study. J Public Health (Berl.) (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10389-023-02140-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10389-023-02140-8