NCJ Number
234004
Journal
Child Abuse & Neglect Volume: 34 Issue: 11 Dated: November 2010 Pages: 842-855
Date Published
November 2010
Length
14 pages
Annotation
A total of 1,068 men and women 35 years old and older, who lived in selected urban communities in Metro Manila (The Philippines), participated in a cross-sectional survey that examined the association among adverse childhood experiences, health-risk behaviors, and chronic disease conditions in adult life.
Abstract
The study found that 75 percent of the survey respondents had at least one exposure to an adverse childhood experience. Nine percent had experienced four or more types of abuse and family dysfunctions. The types of adverse childhood experience found to be most common were psychological/emotional abuse, physical neglect, and psychological neglect. The majority of respondents reported living with an alcoholic or problem drinker and being exposed to domestic violence. The health threats that stemmed from these adverse conditions included smoking, alcohol use, and risky sexual behavior. The general trend shows a relatively strong relationship between the number of adverse childhood experiences, health-risk behaviors, and poor health. The prevention of and early intervention in cases of child maltreatment are recommended in order to reduce the prevalence of health-risk behaviors and morbidity in later life. The questionnaire used was a pretested local version of the Adverse Childhood Experiences Questionnaire developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States. The prevalence and estimates of odds ratio were calculated in order to obtain a measure of association among variables. Logistic regression analysis was used to adjust for the potential confounding effects of age, sex, and socioeconomic status. 6 tables and 75 references