# Childhood predictors of health limitations in life across 22 countries: a cross-national and cross-sectional analysis

## TL;DR

This study explores how childhood experiences predict health limitations in adulthood across 22 countries, highlighting the role of sociocultural and economic factors.

## Contribution

The study identifies both common and country-specific childhood predictors of adult health limitations using a large cross-national dataset.

## Key findings

- Childhood abuse and feeling like an outsider in the family are linked to higher adult health limitations across all countries.
- Self-rated health during childhood is a consistent predictor of health limitations in adulthood.
- The study reveals variations in childhood predictors of health limitations due to sociocultural and economic contexts.

## Abstract

Preventing health problems that limit access to age-appropriate opportunities and relationships (health limitations) is critical to promoting human flourishing. Understanding childhood correlates of health limitations provides a vantage point for prevention efforts. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine the childhood predictors of health limitations across diverse countries. An individual’s self-reported health limitations in adulthood are likely to vary by country, reflecting the influence of diverse sociocultural, economic, religious, and health contexts that characterize each nation.

We used data from the Global Flourishing Study, an ongoing 5-year longitudinal study of human flourishing among 202,898 individuals across 22 countries within nationally representative sampling. A Poisson regression model was fit within each country by regressing health problems in adulthood on a set of childhood predictors. We conducted random effects meta-analyses of the regression coefficients to estimate proportions of effects across countries. Our exploratory analysis highlights key early-life experiences, personal attributes, and familial or social circumstances that are associated with self-reported health limitations in adulthood.

Early predictors of self-reported health limitations in adulthood vary by country, reflecting the influence of diverse sociocultural, economic, religious, and health contexts that characterize each nation. Across all countries, childhood abuse, growing up feeling like an outsider in one’s family, and self-rated health growing up were associated with a greater risk of having a health limitation as an adult.

We found common factors among countries and some variations in childhood predictors across the 22 countries. This cross-national study illuminates the role of broader societal factors in shaping the relationship between childhood experiences and health limitations as adults.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s44263-025-00188-0.