Citation

Edwards VJ, Dube SR, Felitti VJ, Anda RF. Am. Psychol. 2007; 62(4): 327-328.

Affiliation

Analytic Methods Branch, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, US. vae2@cdc.gov.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2007, American Psychological Association)

DOI

10.1037/0003-066X62.4.327

PMID

17516786

Abstract

Comments on the article by K. Becker-Blease and J. Freyd, which addressed the ethics of asking and not asking research subjects about abuse. In their article, they systematically reviewed often-voiced concerns about and objections to asking questions about child maltreatment in survey research. They concluded that by failing to ask about a history of child maltreatment, an important predictor of later-life problems may be overlooked. The current authors discuss the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) study, which provides strong evidence of the association between early traumatic experiences and some of the major public health problems facing our nation. Results from the ACE study have shown an association between traumatic childhood experiences and a broad range of health outcomes, including liver disease, ischemic heart disease, reproductive health, and mental illness, as well as a variety of health risks such as obesity, smoking, and alcoholism. The associations that these studies showed demonstrate that researchers studying health outcomes who do not ask study subjects about traumatic childhood experiences are overlooking an important risk factor for many of the major health issues of our day.

Language: en