A new publication* by Cluster member Dr. Anne Gadermann, Dr. Martin Guhn, and colleagues at the Human Early Learning Partnership demonstrates the power of research with anonymized population-based databases to identify connections between early life environments and children’s mental health.
The study assessed teachers’ observations about more than 130,000 kindergarten-aged children in British Columbia (from the Early Development Instrument (EDI) population-wide questionnaire), as well as data on physician visits for mental-health related reasons, and linked them to information about the children, their families, and their neighbourhoods at the time of their birth.
Among other findings, the authors report that kindergarten teachers observed more signs of anxious, aggressive, or hyperactive behavior (often the first symptoms of mental health problems) in children from families with lower socio-economic status (SES). When SESs was measured by whether or not families received Medical Services Plan payment subsidies for low-income households, lower income also correlated with an increased rate of physician visits for anxiety or ADHD-related reasons; however, this association with doctor visits was not seen when SES was measured in a different way, using census data about the average income of each family’s neighbourhood at the single block level. This work thus demonstrates the ability of large-scale data linkage research to tease out the effects of complex environments on children’s health.
These findings point to the “fundamental importance of considering population-level social determinants of health, such as poverty and lone parent status, as critical leverage points within mental health prevention and promotion strategies”, say the authors.
Another interesting finding that relates to the work of the Social Exposome Cluster is that children who were delivered by Caesarean section were more likely to display anxious, aggressive, or hyperactive behavior and to visit physicians for anxiety, conduct disorder, and ADHD. It’s known that children born by Caesarean section have different microbiomes to children born vaginally, with implications for the risk of physical health conditions such as asthma and allergy. Dr. Gadermann and other Cluster members will continue to work on integrating measures of children's health and development with information about microbiomes and other intrinsic biological responses (i.e. epigenomes and metabolomes) as part of their recently funded New Frontiers in Research Fund Exploration Award.
*"Associations of Birth Factors and Socio-Economic Status with Indicators of Early Emotional Development and Mental Health in Childhood: A Population-Based Linkage Study". Guhn M, Emerson SD, Mahdaviani D, Gadermann AM. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev. 2019, doi: 10.1007/s10578-019-00912-6
article by Dr. Cath Ennis