“The relationship of health risk behavior and disease in adulthood to the breadth of exposure to childhood emotional, physical, or sexual abuse, and household dysfunction during childhood has not previously been described.”
Filetti introduces the discussion via a survey sent to a sample of 13494 adults. The questionnaire contained questions about adverse child hood experiences (ACEs) and the results were partitioned into seven categories: psychological, physical, or sexual abuse; violence against mother; or living with household members who were substance abusers, mentally ill or suicidal, or ever imprisoned.
The study states there is a graded relationship between the number of categories of childhood exposure and each of the adult health risk behaviors and diseases that were studied. Persons who had experienced four or more of the observed ACE categories of childhood exposure, compared to those who had experienced none, had 4- to 12-fold increased health risks for alcoholism, drug abuse, depression, and suicide attempt; a 2- to 4-fold increase in smoking, poor self-rated health, $50 sexual intercourse partners, and sexually transmitted diseases.
Authors: Vincent J. Felitti, MD, FACP, Robert F. Anda, MD, MS, Dale Nordenberg, MD, David F. Williamson, MS, PhD, Alison M. Spitz, MS, MPH, Valerie Edwards, BA, Mary P. Koss, PhD, James S. Marks, MD, MPH