Childhood maltreatment and subsequent risk of hospitalization or death due to COVID-19: a cohort study in the UK Biobank

Childhood maltreatment has been associated with some infection-related outcomes, yet its potential role in severe COVID-19 outcomes has not been addressed. Therefore, leveraging longitudinal data from the population-based UK Biobank (N=151,427), our study aimed to explore the association between childhood maltreatment and severe COVID-19 outcomes (i.e., hospitalization or death due to COVID-19) and its underlying mechanisms. Our results suggest that childhood maltreatment, particularly physical neglect, is associated with a 54.0% increased risk of severe COVID-19 outcomes (i.e., hospitalization or death due to COVID-19), which was not modified by genetic predisposition to severe COVID-19 outcomes. We found that 50.9% of this association was mediated by suboptimal socioeconomic status, lifestyle and prepandemic somatic diseases or psychiatric disorders. These findings highlight the role of early life adversities in severe health consequences across the lifespan and call for increased clinical surveillance of people exposed to childhood maltreatment in COVID-19 outbreaks and future pandemics.