Patterns of adversity, patterns of burden: a person-centred analysis of adult health and behavioural-risk profiles in Abu Dhabi
Abstract
Background: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have been associated with multiple adult physical-health, mental-health and behavioural indicators. This study identified adult-reported health and behavioural-risk profiles in an Abu Dhabi convenience sample and examined their associations with alternative operationalisations of retrospectively reported ACEs.
Methods: Among 922 adults, 918 contributed to latent class analysis of 18 physical-condition, mental-health-condition and behavioural indicators. ACE exposure was represented by a standardised version of the archived 13-domain available-item count and by three re-estimated classes. In the count, unobserved domains were treated as unendorsed when at least one domain was observed; otherwise, the count was missing. Multinomial models used 200 pseudo-class draws to propagate adult-profile uncertainty and, for ACE-class models, uncertainty in both classifications. Unadjusted and age-, gender- and nationality-adjusted relative risk ratios (RRRs) were reported.
Results: The retained four-class solution comprised Low burden, Substance/prescription vulnerability, Cardiometabolic burden and Mental health and multi-burden. Their modal-assignment proportions were 57.1%, 15.9%, 11.5% and 15.5%, respectively. Each one-standard-deviation increase in ACE count was most strongly associated with Mental health and multi-burden versus Low burden (unadjusted RRR 2.94, 95% confidence interval 2.38–3.63; adjusted 2.86, 2.30–3.55). Adjusted count associations with Substance/prescription vulnerability (1.51, 1.15–2.00) and Cardiometabolic burden (1.39, 1.03–1.86) had unadjusted intervals including 1. Versus Low adversity, Household/interpersonal adversity was associated with Mental health and multi-burden (adjusted 7.21, 4.12–12.60); Polyvictimisation/high violence was associated with Mental health and multi-burden (21.31, 8.74–51.95) and Cardiometabolic burden (3.92, 1.21–12.72), but estimates were imprecise.
Conclusions: Retrospectively reported ACEs were associated most consistently with membership in the Mental health and multi-burden profile. Several smaller adjusted associations were specification-sensitive, and estimates involving Polyvictimisation/high violence were imprecise.
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BibTeX
@article{murphy2026patterns,
title = {{Patterns of adversity, patterns of burden: a person-centred analysis of adult health and behavioural-risk profiles in Abu Dhabi}},
author = {Anthony Murphy and Neal Horen and Toby Long and Timothy G. Edgemon and Iffat Elbarazi and Dawn England and Cairo Arafat},
journal = {BMC Public Health},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1186/s12889-026-29611-3},
url = {https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12889-026-29611-3},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Patterns of adversity, patterns of burden: a person-centred analysis of adult health and behavioural-risk profiles in Abu Dhabi
AU - Anthony Murphy
AU - Neal Horen
AU - Toby Long
AU - Timothy G. Edgemon
AU - Iffat Elbarazi
AU - Dawn England
AU - Cairo Arafat
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/15
JO - BMC Public Health
DO - 10.1186/s12889-026-29611-3
UR - https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12889-026-29611-3
AB - Background: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have been associated with multiple adult physical-health, mental-health and behavioural indicators. This study identified adult-reported health and behavioural-risk profiles in an Abu Dhabi convenience sample and examined their associations with alternative operationalisations of retrospectively reported ACEs. Methods: Among 922 adults, 918 contributed to latent class analysis of 18 physical-condition, mental-health-condition and behavioural indicators. ACE exposure was represented by a standardised version of the archived 13-domain available-item count and by three re-estimated classes. In the count, unobserved domains were treated as unendorsed when at least one domain was observed; otherwise, the count was missing. Multinomial models used 200 pseudo-class draws to propagate adult-profile uncertainty and, for ACE-class models, uncertainty in both classifications. Unadjusted and age-, gender- and nationality-adjusted relative risk ratios (RRRs) were reported. Results: The retained four-class solution comprised Low burden, Substance/prescription vulnerability, Cardiometabolic burden and Mental health and multi-burden. Their modal-assignment proportions were 57.1%, 15.9%, 11.5% and 15.5%, respectively. Each one-standard-deviation increase in ACE count was most strongly associated with Mental health and multi-burden versus Low burden (unadjusted RRR 2.94, 95% confidence interval 2.38–3.63; adjusted 2.86, 2.30–3.55). Adjusted count associations with Substance/prescription vulnerability (1.51, 1.15–2.00) and Cardiometabolic burden (1.39, 1.03–1.86) had unadjusted intervals including 1. Versus Low adversity, Household/interpersonal adversity was associated with Mental health and multi-burden (adjusted 7.21, 4.12–12.60); Polyvictimisation/high violence was associated with Mental health and multi-burden (21.31, 8.74–51.95) and Cardiometabolic burden (3.92, 1.21–12.72), but estimates were imprecise. Conclusions: Retrospectively reported ACEs were associated most consistently with membership in the Mental health and multi-burden profile. Several smaller adjusted associations were specification-sensitive, and estimates involving Polyvictimisation/high violence were imprecise.
SN - 1471-2458
ER -