Adverse childhood experiences and the development of multimorbidity across adulthood—a national 70-year cohort study

AIM: To examine impact of adverse childhood experiences (ACE) on rates and development of multimorbidity across three decades in adulthood. METHODS: Sample: Participants from the 1946 National Survey of Health and Development, who attended the age 36 assessment in 1982 and follow-up assessments (ages 43, 53, 63, 69; N = 3,264, 51% males). Prospectively collected data on nine ACEs was grouped into (i) psychosocial, (ii) parental health and (iii) childhood health. For each group, we calculated cumulative ACE scores, categorised into 0, 1 and ≥2 ACEs. Multimorbidity was estimated as the total score of 18 health disorders. Serial cross-sectional linear regression was used to estimate associations between grouped ACEs and multimorbidity during follow-up. Longitudinal analysis of ACE-associated changes in multimorbidity trajectories across follow-up was estimated using linear mixed-effects modelling for ACE groups (adjusted for sex and childhood socioeconomic circumstances). FINDINGS: Accumulation of psychosocial and childhood health ACEs were associated with progressively higher multimorbidity scores throughout follow-up. For example, those with ≥2 psychosocial ACEs experienced 0.20(95% CI 0.07, 0.34) more disorders at age 36 than those with none, rising to 0.61(0.18, 1.04) disorders at age 69. All three grouped ACEs were associated with greater rates of accumulation and higher multimorbidity trajectories across adulthood. For example, individuals with ≥2 psychosocial ACEs developed 0.13(−0.09, 0.34) more disorders between ages 36 and 43, 0.29(0.06, 0.52) disorders between ages 53 and 63, and 0.30(0.09, 0.52) disorders between ages 63 and 69 compared with no psychosocial ACEs. INTERPRETATIONS: ACEs are associated with widening inequalities in multimorbidity development in adulthood and early old age. Public health policies should aim to reduce these disparities through individual and population-level interventions.