B3746 - Associations of prospective and retrospective measures of childhood maltreatment with health outcomes - 29/03/2021

B number: 
B3746
Principal applicant name: 
Ana Goncalves Soares | University of Bristol (United Kingdom)
Co-applicants: 
Amelia Rice, Laura Howe, Abigail Fraser
Title of project: 
Associations of prospective and retrospective measures of childhood maltreatment with health outcomes
Proposal summary: 

Childhood maltreatment has been consistently associated with poor health outcomes, such as obesity, cardiovascular health, mental health, substance misuse and risky sexual behaviours. There is no gold standard to assess childhood maltreatment, and both prospective and retrospective reports entail potential limitations. A poor agreement has been shown between measures of childhood maltreatment assessed prospectively (usually through parental report and official records) and retrospectively (often self-reported), suggesting that these forms of report of maltreatment identify different groups of individuals. The use of retrospective measures of childhood maltreatment might overestimate the associations with subjectively measured outcomes (e.g. self-reported, such as health behaviours and mental health) and underestimate the associations with objectively measured outcomes (e.g. physical health). However, few studies have information on both prospective and retrospective measures of childhood maltreatment and were able to compared the associations of different types of reports of maltreatment with subjectively and objectively measured health outcomes. This project aims to assess and compare associations of prospectively and retrospectively reported childhood maltreatment with key subjectively and objectively measured health outcomes in early adulthood (e.g. cardiovascular risk factors, mental health, and socioeconomic status).

Impact of research: 
This study will contribute to understanding how different sources of report of childhood maltreatment are associated with health outcomes later in life.
Date proposal received: 
Friday, 19 March, 2021
Date proposal approved: 
Monday, 29 March, 2021
Keywords: 
Epidemiology, Mental health, Statistical methods, Childhood - childcare, childhood adversity