Adverse Childhood Experiences and Mortality at Old Age: A Longitudinal Study from the Japan Gerontological Evaluation...

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are associated with undesirable adulthood health outcomes. However, studies investigating the effect of ACE components and cumulative number of ACEs on mortality in older adults are scarce. To examine the association between ACE components or cumulative number of ACEs and mortality in physically and cognitively independent older adults, separately by sex. We conducted a longitudinal study on 11,734 older adults aged ≥ 65 years who responded to the self-administered mail survey of the Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study in 2013. We adjusted for 20 confounders, including demographic and psychosocial factors. Modified Poisson regression models were used for calculating the risk ratio (RR), 95% confidence interval (CI), and p-value for mortality approximately 6 years later, separately by sex. A total of 1,498 (12.8%) participants died during the observation period. Parental mental illness (RR, 1.84; 95% CI: 1.08-3.12; p = 0.024) and physical abuse (RR, 1.60; 95% CI: 1.13-2.26; p = 0.008) in men and parental loss (RR, 1.24; 95% CI: 1.03-1.49; p = 0.021) or cumulative number of ACEs (RR, 1.21; 95% CI: 1.01-1.44; p = 0.035) in women were associated with higher RR for mortality. Men who had experienced physical abuse or parental mental illness and women who had lost their parents or experienced one ACE had a higher RR for mortality than those who had not. Further efforts to accumulate prospective studies and implement interventions are warranted.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40653-025-00732-y.