Quality of Life and Events in the First Year of Life. Results from the Prospective Copenhagen Birth Cohort 1959?61

The objective of this paper was to explore the association between diverse factors occurring during the first year of a child?s life and the quality of life later as an adult. The design was a prospective cohort study based on material from the Copenhagen Birth Cohort 1959–61 with 7,222 participants and two sets of questionnaires used: one by a physician during the child's first year and one by the ?adult child? 31–33 years later. The results showed that a mother's attitude towards her pregnancy, unsuccessful abortions, and/or institutionalization left a permanent trace on the child, since these children, as adults, have a quality of life 3% below the average. Meningitis during the first year of life resulted in a quality of life 11.7% below the average, while other illnesses or accidents did not have an effect. The largest associations were found with psychomotor development, where “walking with support” showed a difference of 14.2% in overall quality of life between the fastest and slowest group. Generally, diet is not correlated with quality of life, however, we find a small, but essential, correlation between the quality of life of the adult and the early cessation of suckling (4%). Full-time institutionalization during the first year of life showed a connection with the quality of life of the adult (7.1%). It is concluded that our quality of life, health and ability as adults are primarily determined by what we ourselves choose to do with our lives as young people and as adults - and only to a marginal degree determined by factors related to our background. This suggests that we as adults have a great freedom to achieve a good life despite our experiences in the beginning of life.