MIDUS data used to specify the biological toll of early-life stress

Although much research connects life stress and health, investigators often cannot specify which stressor leads to what outcome, and if it differs in men and women. Alley et al. sought to do so. They reused data from studies in the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) Series, which they retrieved from NACDA. MIDUS provided them with 25 different stress and disease biomarkers on 20 major health conditions. Further, its large sample of 2,100 participants gave them the statistical power to conduct separate analyses on males and females. Alley et al. found that for both sexes, childhood adversity was indeed linked to higher inflammation, poorer metabolic health, and increased risk of conditions like cardiovascular disease, cancer, and mental health problems. But the specific effects of adversity differed between men and women. For example, emotional abuse had stronger associations with thyroid issues and mental health problems in men, while physical abuse was more strongly linked to metabolic problems in women. Finally, Alley et al. were able to group respondents into distinct classes based on their exposure to different types of adversity, specifying these classes with varying biological and health profiles. There are nearly 3,000 additional publications, listed here, that make use of MIDUS data. MIDUS variables can be compared across waves at midus.colectica.org.