"Traumatic Childhood Might Take 20 Years Off Adult Life"
"Traumatic Childhood Might Take 20 Years Off Adult Life" by Jane Stevens, "Science Daily"
"Many U.S. children face a terrible burden of stressors that can harm the development of their brains and nervous systems. These stressors can lead to health problems and diseases throughout their lives, ultimately causing some to die prematurely, according to the lead author of a new study. People who experienced considerable trauma during their childhood died 20 years prematurely, CDC researchers have found. And those suffering this substantial childhood trauma have double the risk for early death compared with adults who had not endured adverse childhood experiences.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study found that children who were exposed to six or more "adverse childhood experiences" or ACEs were at double the risk of premature death compared to children who had not suffered these experiences. “That’s pretty striking,” says Dr. David Brown, an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and lead author on the publication. “It’s pretty striking that someone with six or more ACEs died 20 years earlier.” On average, the children at highest risk eventually died at age 60, compared to low-risk children who lived to age 79.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study found that children who were exposed to six or more "adverse childhood experiences" or ACEs were at double the risk of premature death compared to children who had not suffered these experiences. “That’s pretty striking,” says Dr. David Brown, an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and lead author on the publication. “It’s pretty striking that someone with six or more ACEs died 20 years earlier.” On average, the children at highest risk eventually died at age 60, compared to low-risk children who lived to age 79.
The study, which appears in the November issue of the "American Journal of Preventive Medicine," is the latest in the ongoing 14-year-old Adverse Childhood Experiences Study. The study involves 17,337 adults who became members of Kaiser Permanente, a health care maintenance organization in San Diego, between 1995 and 1997. After visiting a primary care facility at the HMO, they voluntarily filled out a standard medical questionnaire that included questions about their childhood. The questionnaire asked them about 10 types of child trauma:
• Three types of abuse (sexual, physical and emotional).
• Two types of neglect (physical and emotional).
• Five types of family dysfunction (having a mother who was treated violently, a household member who’s an alcoholic or drug user, who’s been imprisoned, or diagnosed with mental illness, or parents who are separated or divorced).
• Two types of neglect (physical and emotional).
• Five types of family dysfunction (having a mother who was treated violently, a household member who’s an alcoholic or drug user, who’s been imprisoned, or diagnosed with mental illness, or parents who are separated or divorced).
Each type of trauma — not the number of incidents of each trauma — was given an ACE score of 1. So, a person who has been emotionally abused, physically neglected and grew up with an alcoholic father who beat up his wife would have an ACE score of 4.
Since the first of 50 research papers was published in 1998, the findings have stunned researchers, including the co-founders of the study, Dr. Vincent Felitti, who headed Kaiser’s Department of Preventive Medicine, and Dr. Robert Anda, a research physician and CDC epidemiologist, for three reasons:
• They found a strong link between adverse childhood experiences and adult onset of chronic illness. Those with ACE scores of 4 or more had significantly higher rates of heart disease and diabetes than those with ACE scores of zero. The likelihood of chronic pulmonary lung disease increased 390 percent; hepatitis, 240 percent; depression, 460 percent; suicide, 1,220 percent. Those with an ACE score of 6 had a 4,600 percent increase in the likelihood of becoming an IV drug user. “You almost never see that kind of increase in health studies of any kind,” Anda said. “It’s almost unprecedented.”
• Adverse childhood experiences are common: 64 percent of the study participants had experienced one or more categories of adverse childhood experiences.
• The 17,337 people who participated in the ACE study are typical, middle-class, working Americans — 75 percent white, 11 percent Latino, 7 percent Asian, and 5 percent African-American. They’re educated: 75 percent attended college and 40 percent have a basic or higher college education. When they filled out the questionnaire, their average age was 57. Most of them had jobs. Half were women, half were men. All of them had good health insurance.
• Adverse childhood experiences are common: 64 percent of the study participants had experienced one or more categories of adverse childhood experiences.
• The 17,337 people who participated in the ACE study are typical, middle-class, working Americans — 75 percent white, 11 percent Latino, 7 percent Asian, and 5 percent African-American. They’re educated: 75 percent attended college and 40 percent have a basic or higher college education. When they filled out the questionnaire, their average age was 57. Most of them had jobs. Half were women, half were men. All of them had good health insurance.
"Overall, 1,539 people died during follow-up," Brown said. "People with six or more ACEs died nearly 20 years earlier on average than those without ACEs. It is also disturbing that two-thirds of study participants - persons who were relatively well off - had at least one of the ACEs."
“The study is disquieting in its description of the frequency of abuse against children and how often families appear to be dysfunctional,” wrote epidemiologist Dr. William Foege, former director of the CDC and a senior fellow with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, in an editorial in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine when the first ACE research was published in 1998. “It is not what we want to believe about our culture, our neighborhoods, or ourselves. And yet as troubling as the data seem to be, we need to confront the problems described and find an appropriate public health response.”
"The database of the Adverse Childhood Experiences study, utilized in this issue by Dr. Brown and his colleagues to demonstrate the link between childhood adversity and premature death, may ultimately provide us with most important public health data ever compiled," said Sandra L. Bloom, M.D., an associate professor of health management and policy at Drexel University School of Public Health. "Our hope is that, as a result of this research, child maltreatment and exposure to childhood traumatic stress in its various forms will be more widely recognized as a public health problem," Brown said. "It is important to understand that consequences to childhood trauma can extend over an individual's life."
Journal reference: 1. Brown DW, et al. Adverse childhood experiences and the risk of premature mortality. Am J Prev Med, 37(5), 2009. Adapted from materials provided by Center for Advancing Health.
- http://www.sott.net/articles/show/194413-Traumatic-Childhood-Might-Take-Years-Off-Adult-Life
- http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2009/oct/06/traumatic-childhood-takes-20-years-life-expectancy/
So what's happening, right now, to the 37 million American children living in poverty, or homeless?
- http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2009/oct/06/traumatic-childhood-takes-20-years-life-expectancy/
So what's happening, right now, to the 37 million American children living in poverty, or homeless?
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