Fig 1.
Model illustrating the hypothesized links between childhood difficulties and multimorbidity.
All arrows indicate potential pathways connecting adverse childhood experiences to multimorbidity. The solidity of the arrows reflect the proposed relative impact of the illustrated factors. Our main hypothesis is indicated by the red arrows leading from a difficult childhood to multimorbidity through allostatic overload. The blue arrows indicate a presumed impact of behavioural and relational patterns in this development. The black arrows reflect additional pathways that might play a significant but generally more limited role.
Table 1.
Baseline characteristics of participants aged 30–69 years according to childhood experience in the HUNT Study (2006–8).
Fig 2.
Number of diseases in adulthood (30–69y) according to childhood experience in the HUNT3 Study.
Fig 3.
Prevalence of diseases/conditions according to childhood experience for adults (30–69y) in the HUNT3 Study.
Table 2.
Logistic models for multimorbidity according to childhood experience for participants aged 30–69 years in the HUNT Study (2006–8).
Table 3.
Age adjusted difference from reference values of secondary allostatic parameters with 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) according to childhood experience among women aged 30–69 years, in the HUNT Study (2006–8) (N = 20 338).
Table 4.
Age adjusted difference from reference values of secondary allostatic parameters with 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) according to childhood experience among men aged 30–69 years, in the HUNT Study (2006–8) (N = 17 274).