The Continuity of Adversity: Negative Emotionality Links Early Life Adversity With Adult Stressful Life Events.

Adversity that exhibits continuity across the life course has long-term detrimental effects on physical and mental health. Using 920 participants from the Dunedin Study, we tested the following hypotheses: (1) children (ages 3-15) who experienced adversity would also tend to experience adversity in adulthood (ages 32-45), and (2) interim personality traits in young adulthood (ages 18-26) would help account for this longitudinal association. Children who experienced more adversity tended to also experience more stressful life events as adults, β=.

Trajectories of Hearing From Childhood to Adulthood.

Objectives: The Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study provides a unique opportunity to document the progression of ear health and hearing ability within the same cohort of individuals from birth. This investigation draws on hearing data from 5 to 13 years and again at 45 years of age, to explore the associations between childhood hearing variables and hearing and listening ability at age 45.

Design: Multiple linear regression analyses were used to assess associations between childhood hearing (otological status and mid-frequency pure-tone average) and (a) age 45 peripheral hearing ability (mid-frequency pure-tone average and high-frequency pure-tone average), and (b) age 45 listening ability (listening in spatialized noise and subjective questionnaire on listening experiences).

Using risk of crime detection to study change in mechanisms of decision making.

Perceptions of crime detection risk (e.g., risk of arrest) play an integral role in the criminal decision-making process.

Dementia, dementia's risk factors and premorbid brain structure are concentrated in disadvantaged areas: National register and birth-cohort geographic analyses.

Introduction: Dementia risk may be elevated in socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods. Reasons for this remain unclear, and this elevation has yet to be shown at a national population level.

Methods: We tested whether dementia was more prevalent in disadvantaged neighborhoods across the New Zealand population (N = 1.

A blood biomarker of the pace of aging is associated with brain structure: replication across three cohorts.

Biological aging is the correlated decline of multi-organ system integrity central to the etiology of many age-related diseases. A novel epigenetic measure of biological aging, DunedinPACE, is associated with cognitive dysfunction, incident dementia, and mortality. Here, we tested for associations between DunedinPACE and structural MRI phenotypes in three datasets spanning midlife to advanced age: the Dunedin Study (age=45 years), the Framingham Heart Study Offspring Cohort (mean age=63 years), and the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (mean age=75 years).

Resting EEG correlates of neurodevelopment in a socioeconomically and linguistically diverse sample of toddlers: Wave 1 of the Kia Tīmata Pai best start New Zealand study.

Development of communication and self-regulation skills is fundamental to psychosocial maturation in childhood. The Kia Tīmata Pai Best Start (KTP) longitudinal study aims to promote these skills through interventions delivered at early childcare centers across New Zealand. In addition to evaluating effects of the interventions on behavioral and cognitive outcomes, the study utilizes electroencephalography (EEG) to characterize cortical development in a subsample of participating children.

Who Australasians trusted during COVID-19: lessons from the pandemic response.

Aim: Public trust in authoritative information sources is a key element of a successful public health response to a pandemic. This study investigated which sources of COVID-19 advice were most trusted by a primarily New Zealand-based cohort and considers implications for policy and practice regarding future pandemics.

Method: Data were from a COVID-19 vaccine intention survey presented to Australia- and New Zealand-based members of the longitudinal Dunedin Study (n=832) between ages 48 and 49, immediately before vaccines became available for the general population within New Zealand.

Childhood caries is associated with poor health and a faster pace of aging by midlife.

Objectives: Childhood caries is associated with poorer self-rated general health in adulthood, but it remains unclear whether that holds for physical health and aging. The aim of this study was to identify whether age-5 caries is associated with (a) biomarkers for poor physical health, and (b) the pace of aging (PoA) by age 45 years.

Methods: Participants are members of the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study birth cohort.

Test-retest reliability and predictive utility of a macroscale principal functional connectivity gradient.

Mapping individual differences in brain function has been hampered by poor reliability as well as limited interpretability. Leveraging patterns of brain-wide functional connectivity (FC) offers some promise in this endeavor. In particular, a macroscale principal FC gradient that recapitulates a hierarchical organization spanning molecular, cellular, and circuit level features along a sensory-to-association cortical axis has emerged as both a parsimonious and interpretable measure of individual differences in behavior.

Kia Tīmata Pai (Best Start): a study protocol for a cluster randomised trial with early childhood teachers to support children's oral language and self-regulation development.

Introduction: Oral language skills are associated with children's later self-regulation and academic skills; in turn, self-regulation in early childhood predicts successful functioning later in life. The primary objective of this study is to evaluate the separate and combined effectiveness of an oral language intervention (Enhancing Rich Conversations, ENRICH) and a self-regulation intervention (Enhancing Neurocognitive Growth with the Aid of Games and Exercise, ENGAGE) with early childhood teachers and parents for children's oral language, self-regulation and academic functioning.

Methods And Analysis: The Kia Tīmata Pai (Best Start) study is a cluster randomised controlled trial with teachers and children in approximately 140 early childhood centres in New Zealand.

A blood biomarker of accelerated aging in the body associates with worse structural integrity in the brain: replication across three cohorts.

Biological aging is the correlated decline of multi-organ system integrity central to the etiology of many age-related diseases. A novel epigenetic measure of biological aging, DunedinPACE, is associated with cognitive dysfunction, incident dementia, and mortality. Here, we tested for associations between DunedinPACE and structural MRI phenotypes in three datasets spanning midlife to advanced age: the Dunedin Study (age=45 years), the Framingham Heart Study Offspring Cohort (mean age=63 years), and the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (mean age=75 years).

Genetic associations with parental investment from conception to wealth inheritance in six cohorts.

Genetic inheritance is not the only way parents' genes may affect children. It is also possible that parents' genes are associated with investments into children's development. We examined evidence for links between parental genetics and parental investments, from the prenatal period through to adulthood, using data from six population-based cohorts in the UK, US and New Zealand, together totalling 36,566 parents.

Internet-based cognitive behavioural therapy in the real world: Naturalistic use and effectiveness of an evidence-based platform in New Zealand.

Objective: Internet-based cognitive behavioural therapy (iCBT) is an efficacious, scalable intervention that could help meet the significant demand for psychological treatment. Yet, there is limited real-world evidence for its effectiveness. This study investigated the use and effectiveness of a free iCBT programme ('Just a Thought') in New Zealand.

Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Does Not Significantly Affect Midlife Cognitive Functioning Within the General Population: Findings From a Prospective Longitudinal Birth Cohort Study.

Objective: To determine whether differences exist in mid-adulthood cognitive functioning in people with and without history of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI).

Setting: Community-based study.

Participants: People born between April 1, 1972, and March 31, 1973, recruited into the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Longitudinal Study, who completed neuropsychological assessments in mid-adulthood.

Differential Unmet Needs and Experience of Restorative Dental Care in Trajectories of Dental Caries Experience: A Birth Cohort Study.

Dental caries is a chronic and cumulative disease but little has been reported on the continuity of the disease and its treatment through life. Group-based multi-trajectory modeling was used to identify developmental trajectories of untreated carious tooth surfaces (DS), restored tooth surfaces (FS), and teeth extracted due to caries (MT) from ages 9 to 45 years in a New Zealand longitudinal birth cohort, the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study (n = 975). Associations between early-life risk factors and trajectory group membership were examined by specifying the probability of group membership according to a multinomial logit model.

Plasma arginine metabolites in health and chronic kidney disease.

Background: Elevated plasma asymmetric and symmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA and SDMA) are risk factors for chronic kidney disease (CKD) and cardiovascular disease. Using plasma cystatin C (pCYSC)-based estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) trajectories, we identified a cohort at high risk of poor kidney-related health outcomes amongst members of the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study (DMHDS). We therefore examined associations between methylarginine metabolites and kidney function in this cohort.

A one-size-fits-all approach to data-sharing will not suffice in lifecourse research: a grounded theory study of data-sharing from the perspective of participants in a 50-year-old lifecourse study about health and development.

Background: Data-sharing is increasingly encouraged or required by funders and journals. Data-sharing is more complicated for lifecourse studies that rely upon ongoing participation, but little is known about perspectives on data-sharing among participants of such studies. The aim of this qualitative study was to explore perspectives on data-sharing of participants in a birth cohort study.

A comparison of feature selection methodologies and learning algorithms in the development of a DNA methylation-based telomere length estimator.

Background: The field of epigenomics holds great promise in understanding and treating disease with advances in machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence being vitally important in this pursuit. Increasingly, research now utilises DNA methylation measures at cytosine-guanine dinucleotides (CpG) to detect disease and estimate biological traits such as aging. Given the challenge of high dimensionality of DNA methylation data, feature-selection techniques are commonly employed to reduce dimensionality and identify the most important subset of features.

Which Types of Stress Are Associated With Accelerated Biological Aging? Comparing Perceived Stress, Stressful Life Events, Childhood Adversity, and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.

Objective: Stress and stressful events are associated with poorer health; however, there are multiple ways to conceptualize and measure stress and stress responses. One physiological mechanism through which stress could result in poorer health is accelerated biological aging. This study tested which types of stress were associated with accelerated biological aging in adulthood.

Functional topography of the neocortex predicts covariation in complex cognitive and basic motor abilities.

Although higher-order cognitive and lower-order sensorimotor abilities are generally regarded as distinct and studied separately, there is evidence that they not only covary but also that this covariation increases across the lifespan. This pattern has been leveraged in clinical settings where a simple assessment of sensory or motor ability (e.g.

Associations Between Thinner Retinal Neuronal Layers and Suboptimal Brain Structural Integrity in a Middle-Aged Cohort.

Purpose: The retina has potential as a biomarker of brain health and Alzheimer's disease (AD) because it is the only part of the central nervous system which can be easily imaged and has advantages over brain imaging technologies. Few studies have compared retinal and brain measurements in a middle-aged sample. The objective of our study was to investigate whether retinal neuronal measurements were associated with structural brain measurements in a middle-aged population-based cohort.

Fear and anxiety: Lessons learned from the Dunedin longitudinal study.

Four related lines of research on anxiety were reviewed from the 'Dunedin Study', an investigation of a representative longitudinal birth cohort of 50-years duration, with 94% retention at the last follow-up. Findings include: (i) Childhood fears deemed evolutionarily-relevant may have different pathways and/or mechanisms underlying their emergence when compared to evolutionarilyneutral fears. (ii) Sequential comorbidity both inside and external to the family of disorders is the rule not the exception, highlighting the importance of developmental history.