TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2018//
TI  - Social and early life adversity and chronic health conditions among Tunisian adults
JO  - Translational behavioral medicine
A1  - El Mhamdi, Sana
A1  - Lemieux, Andrine
A1  - Ben Fredj, Manel
A1  - Bouanene, Ines
A1  - Ben Salah, Arwa
A1  - Abroug, Hela
A1  - Ben Salem, Kamel
A1  - Al'absi, Mustafa
SP  - ePub
EP  - ePub
VL  - ePub
IS  - ePub
N2  - Early life adversities (ELAs) are shown as significant risk factors for chronic health conditions (CHCs). ELAs include multiple types of abuse such as the social abuse (peer, community, and collective violence). The purpose is to describe the relationship between childhood social abuse and chronic conditions in adulthood among a sample of adults in Tunisia and to investigate the role of obesity and tobacco use as mediators of this association. A cross-sectional study was conducted in Tunisia, from January to June 2016 using the Arabic Adverse Childhood Experiences International Questionnaire (ACE-IQ). Items of social abuse (peer violence, witnessing community violence, and exposure to collective violence) were analyzed. A total of 2,120 adults were enrolled. After adjustment for age, gender, and intrafamilial ELA, social adversities were associated significantly with the selected CHC. Experiencing more than two social ELA increase the risk of occurrence of hypertension and coronary diseases. After accounting for the indirect effect of body mass index, statistically significant partial mediation effects were observed for the cumulative number of social ELA as the exposure variable and chronic diseases as the outcome variable (p ≤.001; % mediated = 44.5%). These findings support an association between many chronic health disorders and childhood social abuse, independently of intrafamilial ACEs.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 1869-6716
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/tbm/iby126
ID  - ref1
ER  -