Abstract
In humans and other animals, harsh circumstances in early life predict morbidity and mortality in adulthood. Multiple adverse conditions are thought to be especially toxic, but this hypothesis has rarely been tested in a prospective, longitudinal framework, especially in long-lived mammals. Here we use prospective data on 196 wild female baboons to show that cumulative early adversity predicts natural adult lifespan. Females who experience ≥3 sources of early adversity die a median of 10 years earlier than females who experience ≤1 adverse circumstances (median lifespan is 18.5 years). Females who experience the most adversity are also socially isolated in adulthood, suggesting that social processes partially explain the link between early adversity and adult survival. Our results provide powerful evidence for the developmental origins of health and disease and indicate that close ties between early adversity and survival arise even in the absence of health habit and health care-related explanations.
Highlights
In humans and other animals, harsh circumstances in early life predict morbidity and mortality in adulthood
Our objective in this study was to test the correlation between cumulative early adversity and adult longevity in a natural population of baboons, where long-term observations of individually recognized animals provide data on the occurrence of multiple adverse circumstances starting from birth
To investigate whether social processes contribute to the correlation between early adversity and longevity, we investigated whether early adversity predicts social integration in adulthood, a known predictor of female longevity in humans, baboons and several other social mammals[24,25,26,27,28]
Summary
In humans and other animals, harsh circumstances in early life predict morbidity and mortality in adulthood. The accumulation of adverse conditions in the first few years of life sets individuals onto distinct biological and social tracks that have enduring consequences for later life morbidity and mortality[5,20,21] While this framework is compelling, studies that test these ideas using prospective, longitudinal data are rare. Our objective in this study was to test the correlation between cumulative early adversity and adult longevity in a natural population of baboons, where long-term observations of individually recognized animals provide data on the occurrence of multiple adverse circumstances starting from birth. Females who experience more cumulative early adversity have significantly shorter adult lifespans—on the order of years— which translates into fewer surviving offspring and lower lifetime reproductive success They are more socially isolated from other females as adults, but not from adult males. These results encourage renewed attention to the evolutionary origins and mechanistic basis of the developmental origins of health and disease
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