School achievement in adolescence and the risk of mental disorders in early adulthood: a Finnish nationwide register study.

School grades in adolescence have been linked to later psychiatric outcomes, but large-scale nationwide studies across the spectrum of mental disorders are scarce. In the present study, we examined the risk of a wide array of mental disorders in adulthood, as well as the risk of comorbidity, associated with school achievement in adolescence. We used population-based cohort data comprising all individuals born in Finland over the period 1980-2000 (N = 1,070,880) who were followed from age 15 or 16 until a diagnosis of mental disorder, emigration, death, or December 2017, whichever came first. Final grade average from comprehensive school was the exposure, and the first diagnosed mental disorder in a secondary healthcare setting was the outcome. The risks were assessed with Cox proportional hazards models, stratified Cox proportional hazard models within strata of full-siblings, and multinomial regression models. The cumulative incidence of mental disorders was estimated using competing risks regression. Better school achievement was associated with a smaller risk of all subsequent mental disorders and comorbidity, except for eating disorders, where better school achievement was associated with a higher risk. The largest associations were observed between school achievement and substance use disorders. Overall, individuals with school achievement more than two standard deviations below average had an absolute risk of 39.6% of a later mental disorder diagnosis. By contrast, for individuals with school achievement more than two standard deviations above average, the absolute risk of a later mental disorder diagnosis was 15.7%. The results show that the largest mental health burden accumulates among those with the poorest school achievement in adolescence.

Geographical variation in treated psychotic and other mental disorders in Finland by region and urbanicity.

PURPOSE: In Finland, prevalence of schizophrenia is higher in the eastern and northern regions and co-occurs with the distribution of schizophrenia polygenic risk scores. Both genetic and environmental factors have been hypothesized to contribute to this variation. We aimed to examine the prevalence of psychotic and other mental disorders by region and degree of urbanicity, and the impacts of socio-economic adjustments on these associations. METHODS: Nationwide population registers from 2011 to 2017 and healthcare registers from 1975 to 2017. We used 19 administrative and three aggregate regions based on the distribution of schizophrenia polygenic risk scores, and a seven-level urban-rural classification. Prevalence ratios (PRs) were calculated by Poisson regression models and adjusted for gender, age, and calendar year (basic adjustments), and Finnish origin, residential history, urbanicity, household income, economic activity, and physical comorbidity (additional adjustments) on an individual level. Average marginal effects were used to visualize interaction effects between region and urbanicity. RESULTS: A total of 5,898,180 individuals were observed. All mental disorders were slightly more prevalent (PR 1.03 [95% CI, 1.02-1.03]), and psychotic disorders (1.11 [1.10-1.12]) and schizophrenia (1.19 [1.17-1.21]) considerably more prevalent in eastern and northern than in western coastal regions. After the additional adjustments, however, the PRs were 0.95 (0.95-0.96), 1.00 (0.99-1.01), and 1.03 (1.02-1.04), respectively. Urban residence was associated with increased prevalence of psychotic disorders across all regions (adjusted PR 1.21 [1.20-1.22]). CONCLUSION: After adjusting for socioeconomic and sociodemographic factors, the within-country distribution of mental disorders no longer followed the traditional east-west gradient. Urban-rural differences, on the other hand, persisted after the adjustments.

Association between depression and the likelihood of having children: a nationwide register study in Finland.

BACKGROUND: Depression may be associated with a lower likelihood of having children, but the findings are inconsistent. Previous population-based studies on this topic are limited. OBJECTIVE: We examined associations between depression and the likelihood of having children, the number of children, and the parental age at first birth. We also evaluated whether these associations differ for people with low, middle, and high educational levels. STUDY DESIGN: We conducted a nationwide register cohort study including all individuals born in Finland from 1960 to 1980 (n=1,408,951). Depression diagnoses were identified from the Care Register for Health Care (containing records of inpatient hospital episodes for the period 1969 to 2017 and of specialist outpatient visits for the period 1996 to 2017). The main outcomes-having biological children, the number of biological children, and the parental age at first birth-were identified from the Population Register of Statistics Finland and were defined either in the last year of the follow-up in 2017 or the last year alive or living in Finland. The association between depression and the likelihood of having children was examined using a logistic regression analysis; the association between depression and the number of children was evaluated using Poisson regression analyses, and the association between depression and the age at first birth was evaluated using a linear regression analysis. All analyses were conducted separately for men and women. RESULTS: For both men and women, secondary care-treated depression was associated with a lower likelihood of having children (odds ratio, 0.66; 95% confidence interval, 0.64-0.67 for men; odds ratio, 0.84; 95% confidence interval, 0.82-0.85 for women) and with having fewer children (incidence rate ratio, 0.86; 95% confidence interval, 0.86-0.87 for men; incidence rate ratio, 0.96; 95% confidence interval, 0.96-0.96 for women). Depression was associated with a slightly lower parental age at first birth (33.1 vs 34.0; P<.001 for men; 31.3 vs 32.1; P<.001 for women). Dose-response associations between the severity of depression and a decreased likelihood of having children, as well as having fewer children, were observed. Earlier onset of depression was related to a lower likelihood of having children and to having fewer children. Among men and women in middle- and high-level educational groups, depression was associated with a lower likelihood of having children and with having fewer children. Among men with a low level of education, no associations were observed. Among women with a low level of education, depression was associated with a higher likelihood of having children and with having more children. CONCLUSION: Both men and women with secondary care-treated depression have a lower likelihood of having children and have fewer children. Our findings suggest that depression may be one of the factors that contribute to the likelihood of having children, which should be addressed by policy makers.

Long-term cumulative light exposure from the natural environment and sleep: A cohort study.

We analysed (A) the association of short-term as well as long-term cumulative exposure to natural light, and (B) the association of detailed temporal patterns of natural light exposure history with three indicators of sleep: sleep duration, sleep problems, and diurnal preference. Data (N = 1,962; 55% women; mean age 41.4 years) were from the prospective Young Finns Study, which we linked to daily meteorological data on each participant's neighbourhood natural light exposure using residential postal codes. Sleep outcomes were self-reported in 2011. We first examined associations of the sleep outcomes with cumulative light exposure of 5-year, 2-year, 1-year, and 2-month periods prior to the sleep assessment using linear and Poisson regression models adjusting for potential confounders. We then used a data-driven time series approach to detect clusters of participants with different light exposure histories and assessed the associations of these clusters with the sleep outcomes using linear and Poisson regression analyses. A greater cumulative light exposure over ≥1 year was associated with a shorter sleep duration (ß = -0.10, 95% confidence interval [CI] -0.15 to -0.04), more sleep problems (incident rate ratio [IRR] 1.04, 95% CI 1.0-1.07) and diurnal preference towards eveningness (ß = -0.09, 95% CI -0.14 to -0.03). The data-driven exposure pattern of "slowly increasing" light exposure was associated with fewer overall sleep problems (IRR 0.93, 95% CI 0.88-0.98) compared to a "recently declining" light exposure group representing the "average-exposure" group. These findings suggest that living in an area with relatively more intense light exposure for a longer period of time influences sleep.

Parental psychological problems were associated with higher screen time and the use of mature-rated media in children.

AIM: Parents' psychological problems may affect children's screen time, but research has been scarce. We examined the association between parental psychological problems and children's screen media behaviours in a nationally representative sample. METHODS: The participants were from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study, recruited by probability sampling from the USA population. Children reported their use of TV, videos, video games, social media and mature-rated media. The parents (85% mothers) reported psychological problems using the Adult Self-Report questionnaire. RESULTS: In 10,650 children (5112 girls, 5538 boys) aged 9.9 ± 0.6 years, the presence of parental psychological problems was associated with children spending more daily time on screen media and with meeting the recommendation of ≤2 daily hours less often than children whose parents did not have psychological problems. Parental psychological problems were associated with children's TV watching, video watching and gaming but not with using social media. Parental internalising problems were associated with children watching mature-rated movies (odds ratio [OR] = 1.14, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.00, 1.30) and playing mature-rated games (OR = 1.27, 95% CI = 1.11, 1.45). CONCLUSION: Presence of parental psychological problems is associated with higher screen time and use of mature-rated media in children. This cross-sectional study was not able to examine causal associations.

The Contribution of Neighborhood Socioeconomic Disadvantage to Depressive Symptoms Over the Course of Adult Life: A 32-Year Prospective Cohort Study.

The association between socioeconomic disadvantage and increased risk of depressive symptoms in adulthood is well established. We tested 1) the contribution of early exposure to neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage to later depressive symptoms throughout life, 2) the persistence of the potential association between early exposure and depressive symptoms, and 3) the contributions of other known risk factors to the association. Data were collected from the Young Finns Study, a prospective, population-based 32-year follow-up study that included participants aged 3-18 years at baseline in 1980. Participants were followed up with repeated measurements of depressive symptoms between 1992 and 2012 (n = 2,788) and linked to national grid data on neighborhood disadvantage via residential addresses. We examined the associations in mixed models separately for the 5-, 10-, 15-, and 20-year follow-ups. Living in a disadvantaged neighborhood during childhood and adolescence was associated with a higher level of depressive symptoms in adulthood during all follow-up periods (ß = 0.07, P = 0.001) than living in a nondisadvantaged area. Individual adulthood socioeconomic status mediated the associations. These findings suggest that living in a socioeconomically disadvantaged area during childhood and adolescence has a long-lasting negative association with mental health irrespective of family-related risks, partially due to socioeconomic adversity later in life.

Parental income as a marker for socioeconomic position during childhood and later risk of developing a secondary care-diagnosed mental disorder examined across the full diagnostic spectrum: a national cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Links between parental socioeconomic position during childhood and subsequent risks of developing mental disorders have rarely been examined across the diagnostic spectrum. We conducted a comprehensive analysis of parental income level, including income mobility, during childhood and risks for developing mental disorders diagnosed in secondary care in young adulthood. METHODS: National cohort study of persons born in Denmark 1980-2000 (N = 1,051,265). Parental income was measured during birth year and at ages 5, 10 and 15. Follow-up began from 15th birthday until mental disorder diagnosis or 31 December 2016, whichever occurred first. Hazard ratios and cumulative incidence were estimated. RESULTS: A quarter (25.2%; 95% CI 24.8-25.6%) of children born in the lowest income quintile families will have a secondary care-diagnosed mental disorder by age 37, versus 13.5% (13.2-13.9%) of those born in the highest income quintile. Longer time spent living in low-income families was associated with higher risks of developing mental disorders. Associations were strongest for substance misuse and personality disorders and weaker for mood disorders and anxiety/somatoform disorders. An exception was eating disorders, with low parental income being associated with attenuated risk. For all diagnostic categories examined except for eating disorders, downward socioeconomic mobility was linked with higher subsequent risk and upward socioeconomic mobility with lower subsequent risk of developing mental disorders. CONCLUSIONS: Except for eating disorders, low parental income during childhood is associated with subsequent increased risk of mental disorders diagnosed in secondary care across the diagnostic spectrum. Early interventions to mitigate the disadvantages linked with low income, and better opportunities for upward socioeconomic mobility could reduce social and mental health inequalities.

Employment and earnings trajectories before and after sickness absence due to major depressive disorder: a nationwide case-control study.

OBJECTIVES: To examine employment and earnings trajectories before and after the first sickness absence period due to major depressive disorder (MDD). METHODS: All individuals (n=158 813) in Finland who had a first sickness absence period (lasting longer than 9 days) due to MDD between 2005 and 2015 were matched with one randomly selected individual of the same age and gender with no history of MDD. Employment status and earnings were measured using register-based data annually from 2005 to 2015. Generalised estimating equations were used to examine the trajectories of employment and earnings before and after MDD diagnosis in men and women separately. RESULTS: Sickness absence due to MDD was associated with increased probability of non-employment during and after the year of the first sickness absence period. In men, but not in women, the probability of being employed was lower 5 years before the sickness absence period due to MDD. When compared with the individuals in the control group, men had around 34% and women 15% lower earnings 1 year, and 40% and 23%, respectively, 5 years, after the first sickness absence period due to MDD. More severe MDD and longer duration of sickness absence period were associated with lower probability of being employed. CONCLUSIONS: Sickness absence due to MDD was associated with considerable reduction in employment and earnings losses. For men and individuals with more severe MDD, this reduction was before the first sickness period. This supports a reciprocal association between employment and earnings with MDD.

Network structure of depression symptomology in participants with and without depressive disorder: the population-based Health 2000-2011 study.

PURPOSE: Putative causal relations among depressive symptoms in forms of network structures have been of recent interest, with prior studies suggesting that high connectivity of the symptom network may drive the disease process. We examined in detail the network structure of depressive symptoms among participants with and without depressive disorders (DD; consisting of major depressive disorder (MDD) and dysthymia) at two time points. METHODS: Participants were from the nationally representative Health 2000 and Health 2011 surveys. In 2000 and 2011, there were 5998 healthy participants (DD-) and 595 participants with DD diagnosis (DD+). Depressive symptoms were measured using the 13-item version of the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). Fused Graphical Lasso was used to estimate network structures, and mixed graphical models were used to assess network connectivity and symptom centrality. Network community structure was examined using the walktrap-algorithm and minimum spanning trees (MST). Symptom centrality was evaluated with expected influence and participation coefficients. RESULTS: Overall connectivity did not differ between networks from participants with and without DD, but more simple community structure was observed among those with DD compared to those without DD. Exploratory analyses revealed small differences between the samples in the order of one centrality estimate participation coefficient. CONCLUSIONS: Community structure, but not overall connectivity of the symptom network, may be different for people with DD compared to people without DD. This difference may be of importance when estimating the overall connectivity differences between groups with and without mental disorders.

Personality, disability-free life years, and life expectancy: Individual participant meta-analysis of 131,195 individuals from 10 cohort studies.

OBJECTIVE: We examined how personality traits of the Five Factor Model were related to years of healthy life years lost (mortality and disability) for individuals and the population. METHOD: Participants were 131,195 individuals from 10 cohort studies from Australia, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States (n = 43,935 from seven cohort studies for the longitudinal analysis of disability, assessed using scales of Activities of Daily Living). RESULTS: Lower Conscientiousness was associated with higher mortality and disability risk, but only when Conscientiousness was below its median level. If the excess risk associated with low Conscientiousness had been absent, population life expectancy would have been 1.3 years longer and disability-free life 1.0 years longer. Lower emotional stability was related to shorter life expectancy, but only among those in the lowest 15% of the distribution, and disability throughout the distribution: if the excess risk associated with low emotional stability had been absent, population life expectancy would have been 0.4 years longer and disability-free life 2.4 years longer. CONCLUSIONS: Personality traits of low Conscientiousness and low emotional stability are associated with reduced healthy life expectancy of individuals and population.

Temperament profiles are associated with dietary behavior from childhood to adulthood.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Temperament may be associated with eating behaviors over the lifespan. This study examined the association of toddlerhood temperament with dietary behavior and dietary intervention outcomes across 18 years. METHODS: The study comprised 660 children (52% boys) from The Special Turku Intervention Project (STRIP), which is a longitudinal randomized controlled trial from the age of 7 months until the age of 20 years (1990-2010). Temperament was assessed using Carey temperament scales when the participants were 2 years of age. Latent profile analysis yielded three temperament groups, which were called negative/low regulation (19% of the children), neutral/average regulation (52%) and positive/high regulation (28%). Dietary behavior was examined from 2 to 20 years of age using food records, which were converted into a diet score (mean = 15.7, SD 4.6). Mixed random-intercept growth curve analysis was the main analytic method. RESULTS: Dietary behavior showed a significant quadratic U-shaped curve over time (B for quadratic association = 0.39, P<.001; B for linear association = 0.09, P = 0.58). Children in the negative/low regulation temperament group had a lower diet score (less healthy diet) across the 18 years compared to children in the neutral/average or in the positive/high regulation group. Temperament was not associated with the rate of change in diet over time. Temperament did not have any interactive effects with the intervention (F [2, 627], P = 0.72). CONCLUSION: Children with a temperament profile characterized by high negative mood, high irregularity and high intensity in emotion expression constitute a risk group for less healthy eating over the lifespan.

Alcohol use and personality trait change: pooled analysis of six cohort studies.

BACKGROUND: Personality has been associated with alcohol use, but less is known about how alcohol use may influence long-term personality trait change. METHODS: The present study examines associations between alcohol use and change in the five major personality traits across two measurement occasions (mean follow-up of 5.6 years). A total of 39 722 participants (54% women) were pooled from six cohort studies for an individual-participant meta-analysis. Alcohol use was measured as (1) average alcohol consumption, (2) frequency of binge drinking, (3) symptoms of alcohol use disorder, and (4) a global indicator of risky alcohol use. Changes in the five major personality traits (extraversion, emotional stability, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience) were used as outcomes. RESULTS: Risky alcohol use was associated with increasing extraversion [0.25 T-scores over the mean follow-up of 5.6 years; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.07-0.44] and decreasing emotional stability (-0.28; 95% CI -0.48 to -0.08), agreeableness (-0.67; 95% CI -0.87 to -0.36), and conscientiousness (-0.58; 95% CI -0.79 to -0.38). Except the association between alcohol use and extraversion, these associations were consistent across cohort studies and across different measures of alcohol use. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that alcohol use is associated with personality trait changes in adulthood.

Gene-environment correlations in parental emotional warmth and intolerance: genome-wide analysis over two generations of the Young Finns Study.

BACKGROUND: Genomic analysis of the child might offer new potential to illuminate human parenting. We examined whether offspring (G2) genome-wide genotype variation (SNPs) is associated with their mother's (G1) emotional warmth and intolerance, indicating a gene-environment correlation. If this association is stronger than between G2's genes and their emotional warmth and intolerance toward their own children, then this would indicate the presence of an evocative gene-environment correlation. To further understand how G1 mother's parenting has been evoked by genetically influenced characteristics of the child (G2), we examined whether child (G2) temperament partially accounted for the association between offspring genes and parental responses. METHODS: Participants were from the Young Finns Study. G1 mothers (N = 2,349; mean age 39 years) self-reported the emotional warmth and intolerance toward G2 in 1980 when the participants were from 3 to 18 years old. G2 participants answered the same parenting scales in 2007/2012 (N = 1,378; mean age = 38 years in 2007; 59% female) when their children were on average 11 years old. Offspring temperament traits were self-reported in 1992 (G2 age range 15-30 years). Estimation of the phenotypic variance explained by the SNPs of G2 was done by genome-wide complex trait analysis with restricted maximum likelihood (GCTA-GREML). RESULTS: Results showed that the SNPs of a child (G2) explained 22.6% of the phenotypic variance of maternal intolerance (G1; p-value = .039). G2 temperament trait negative emotionality explained only 2.4% points of this association. G2 genes did not explain G1 emotional warmth or G2's own emotional warmth and intolerance. However, further analyses of a combined measure of both G1 parenting scales found genetic effects. Parent or child gender did not moderate the observed associations. CONCLUSIONS: Presented genome-wide evidence is pointing to the important role a child plays in affecting and shaping his/her family environment, though the underlying mechanisms remain unclear.

Bipolar disorder and depression in early adulthood and long-term employment, income, and educational attainment: A nationwide cohort study of 2,390,127 individuals.

BACKGROUND: Mood disorders are known to be associated with poor socioeconomic outcomes, but no study has examined these associations across the entire worklife course. Our goal was to estimate the associations between bipolar disorder and depression in early adulthood and subsequent employment, income, and educational attainment. METHODS: We conducted a nationwide prospective cohort study including all individuals (n = 2,390,127; 49% female) born in Denmark between 1955 and 1990. Hospital-based diagnoses of depression and bipolar disorder before age 25 were obtained from the Danish psychiatric register. Yearly employment, earnings, and education status from ages 25 to 61 were obtained from the Danish labor market and education registers. We estimated both absolute and relative proportions. RESULTS: Population rates of hospital-diagnosed depression and bipolar between ages 15-25 were 1% and 0.12%, respectively. Compared to individuals without mood disorders, those with depression and particularly bipolar disorder had consistently poor socioeconomic outcomes across the entire work-life span. For example, at age 30, 62% of bipolar and 53% of depression cases were outside the workforce compared to 19% of the general population, and 52% of bipolar and 42% of depression cases had no higher education compared to 27% of the general population. Overall, individuals with bipolar disorder or depression earned around 36% and 51%, respectively, of the income earned by individuals without mood disorders. All associations were smaller for individuals not rehospitalized after age 25. CONCLUSIONS: Severe mood disorders with onset before age 25, particularly bipolar disorder, are associated with persistent poor socioeconomic outcomes across the entire work-life course.

The association between early-onset schizophrenia with employment, income, education, and cohabitation status: nationwide study with 35 years of follow-up.

PURPOSE: Individuals with schizophrenia have been reported to have low employment rates. We examined the associations of schizophrenia with employment, income, and status of cohabitation from a work life course perspective. METHODS: Nationwide cohort study including all individuals (n = 2,390,127) born in Denmark between 1955 and 1991, who were alive at their 25th birthday. Diagnosis of schizophrenia (yes/no) between ages 15 and 25 was used as an exposure. Employment status, annual wage or self-employment earnings, level of education, and cohabitant status from the age of 25-61 (years 1980-2016) were used as outcomes. RESULTS: Schizophrenia diagnosis between ages 15 and 25 (n = 9448) was associated with higher odds of not being employed (at the age of 30: OR 39.4, 95% CI 36.5-42.6), having no secondary or higher education (7.4, 7.0-7.8), and living alone (7.6, 7.2-8.1). These odds ratios were two-to-three times lower and decreasing over time for those individuals who did not receive treatment in a psychiatric inpatient or outpatient clinic for schizophrenia after the age of 25. Between ages 25-61, individuals with schizophrenia have cumulative earning of $224,000, which is 14% of the amount that the individuals who have not been diagnosed with schizophrenia earn. CONCLUSIONS: Individuals with schizophrenia are at high risk of being outside the labour market and living alone throughout their entire life, resulting in an enormous societal loss in earnings. Individuals with less chronic course of schizophrenia had a gradual but substantial improvement throughout their work life.

Personality traits and career choices among physicians in Finland: employment sector, clinical patient contact, specialty and change of specialty.

BACKGROUND: Personality influences an individual's adaptation to a specific job or organization. Little is known about personality trait differences between medical career and specialty choices after graduating from medical school when actually practicing different medical specialties. Moreover, whether personality traits contribute to important career choices such as choosing to work in the private or public sector or with clinical patient contact, as well as change of specialty, have remained largely unexplored. In a nationally representative sample of Finnish physicians (N = 2837) we examined how personality traits are associated with medical career choices after graduating from medical school, in terms of employment sector, patient contact, medical specialty and change of specialty. METHODS: Personality was assessed using the shortened version of the Big Five Inventory (S-BFI). An analysis of covariance with posthoc tests for pairwise comparisons was conducted, adjusted for gender and age with confounders (employment sector, clinical patient contact and medical specialty). RESULTS: Higher openness was associated with working in the private sector, specializing in psychiatry, changing specialty and not practicing with patients. Lower openness was associated with a high amount of patient contact and specializing in general practice as well as ophthalmology and otorhinolaryngology. Higher conscientiousness was associated with a high amount of patient contact and specializing in surgery and other internal medicine specialties. Lower conscientiousness was associated with specializing in psychiatry and hospital service specialties. Higher agreeableness was associated with working in the private sector and specializing in general practice and occupational health. Lower agreeableness and neuroticism were associated with specializing in surgery. Higher extraversion was associated with specializing in pediatrics and change of specialty. Lower extraversion was associated with not practicing with patients. CONCLUSIONS: The results showed distinctive personality traits to be associated with physicians' career and specialty choices after medical school independent of known confounding factors. Openness was the most consistent personality trait associated with physicians' career choices in terms of employment sector, amount of clinical patient contact, specialty choice and change of specialty. Personality-conscious medical career counseling and career guidance during and after medical education might enhance the person-job fit among physicians.

Does higher education protect against obesity? Evidence using Mendelian randomization.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this explorative study was to examine the effect of education on obesity using Mendelian randomization. METHODS: Participants (N=2011) were from the on-going nationally representative Young Finns Study (YFS) that began in 1980 when six cohorts (aged 30, 33, 36, 39, 42 and 45 in 2007) were recruited. The average value of BMI (kg/m2) measurements in 2007 and 2011 and genetic information were linked to comprehensive register-based information on the years of education in 2007. We first used a linear regression (Ordinary Least Squares, OLS) to estimate the relationship between education and BMI. To identify a causal relationship, we exploited Mendelian randomization and used a genetic score as an instrument for education. The genetic score was based on 74 genetic variants that genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have found to be associated with the years of education. Because the genotypes are randomly assigned at conception, the instrument causes exogenous variation in the years of education and thus enables identification of causal effects. RESULTS: The years of education in 2007 were associated with lower BMI in 2007/2011 (regression coefficient (b)=-0.22; 95% Confidence Intervals [CI]=-0.29, -0.14) according to the linear regression results. The results based on Mendelian randomization suggests that there may be a negative causal effect of education on BMI (b=-0.84; 95% CI=-1.77, 0.09). CONCLUSION: The findings indicate that education could be a protective factor against obesity in advanced countries.

Psychosocial environment in childhood and body mass index growth over 32years.

The psychosocial environment and especially various psychosocial risks in childhood have been shown to predict later negative health behavior and health problems. In this study, we examined whether various psychosocial factor domains in childhood and adolescence: socioeconomic status, the emotional family environment (parental nurturance, life-satisfaction), parental lifestyle, life-events, the child's self-regulatory behavior and the child's social adaptation were associated with body mass index (BMI) trajectories individually by domain and as a cumulative score across domains. The participants were a nationally representative sample of 2016 men and women from the Young Finns study aged 3-18years at study entry in 1980. Their BMI was measured at six study phases from 1980 to 2012. Their parents reported all the factors related to their psychosocial environment in 1980. The participants responded to questions on adulthood socioeconomic status in 2007. The accumulation of psychosocial factors in childhood was the main exposure variable. The findings from repeated measures multilevel modeling showed that parental lifestyle and life-events and the more positive cumulative psychosocial factors score were associated with a slower increase in BMI during follow-up (regression coefficient range from -0.06 to -0.50). In conclusion, the psychosocial environment in childhood and adolescence, particularly parental lifestyle and lack of stressful life-events, are associated with a lower increase of BMI.

Cumulative effect of psychosocial factors in youth on ideal cardiovascular health in adulthood: the Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study.

BACKGROUND: The American Heart Association has defined a new metric of ideal cardiovascular health as part of its 2020 Impact Goals. We examined whether psychosocial factors in youth predict ideal cardiovascular health in adulthood. METHODS AND RESULTS: Participants were 477 men and 612 women from the nationwide Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study. Psychosocial factors were measured from cohorts 3 to 18 years of age at the baseline of the study, and ideal cardiovascular health was examined 27 years later in adulthood. The summary measure of psychosocial factors in youth comprised socioeconomic factors, emotional factors, parental health behaviors, stressful events, self-regulation of the child, and social adjustment of the child. There was a positive association between a higher number of favorable psychosocial factors in youth and greater ideal cardiovascular health index in adulthood (ß=0.16; P<0.001) that persisted after adjustment for age, sex, medication use, and cardiovascular risk factors in childhood (ß=0.15; P<0.001). The association was monotonic, suggesting that each increment in favorable psychosocial factors was associated with improvement in cardiovascular health. Of the specific psychosocial factors, a favorable socioeconomic environment (ß=0.12; P<0.001) and participants' self-regulatory behavior (ß=0.07; P=0.004) were the strongest predictors of ideal cardiovascular health in adulthood. CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest a dose-response association between favorable psychosocial factors in youth and cardiovascular health in adulthood, as defined by the American Heart Association metrics. The effect seems to persist throughout the range of cardiovascular health, potentially shifting the population distribution of cardiovascular health rather than simply having effects in a high-risk population.

Childhood Psychosocial Cumulative Risks and Carotid Intima-Media Thickness in Adulthood: The Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study.

OBJECTIVE: Adverse experiences in childhood may influence cardiovascular risk in adulthood. We examined the prospective associations between types of psychosocial adversity and having multiple adversities (e.g., cumulative risk) with carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) and its progression among young adults. Higher cumulative risk score in childhood was expected to be associated with higher IMT and its progression. METHODS: Participants were 2265 men and women (age range, 24-39 years in 2001) from the ongoing Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns study whose carotid IMTs were measured in 2001 and 2007. A cumulative psychosocial risk score, assessed at the study baseline in 1980, was derived from four separate aspects of the childhood environment that may impose risk (childhood stressful life events, parental health behavior family, socioeconomic status, and childhood emotional environment). RESULTS: The cumulative risk score was associated with higher IMT in 2007 (b = 0.004, standard error [SE] = 0.001, p < .001) and increased IMT progression from 2001 to 2007 (b = 0.003, SE = 0.001, p = .001). The associations were robust to adjustment for conventional cardiovascular risk factors in childhood and adulthood, including adulthood health behavior, adulthood socioeconomic status, and depressive symptoms. Among the individual childhood psychosocial risk categories, having more stressful life events was associated with higher IMT in 2001 (b = 0.007, SE = 0.003, p = .016) and poorer parental health behavior predicted higher IMT in 2007 (b = 0.004, SE = 0.002, p = .031) after adjustment for age, sex, and childhood cardiovascular risk factors. CONCLUSIONS: Early life psychosocial environment influences cardiovascular risk later in life, and considering cumulative childhood risk factors may be more informative than individual factors in predicting progression of preclinical atherosclerosis in adulthood.