Physical illnesses that developed included diabetes, cancer, migraines, arthritis, heart disease, diabetes, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
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Toronto: Researchers of the
University of Toronto recently conducted a study that found that older people who had been physically abused as children were significantly more likely to develop chronic pain and other physical ailments as they age.
The results of the research were published in the journal ‘Aging and Health Research’.
Compared to those who did not experience this early trauma, they had a twofold increased risk of developing
depression and anxiety disorders.
“Unfortunately, our findings suggest that the traumatic experience of childhood physical abuse can influence both physical health and
mental health many decades later. It also underscores the importance of evaluating adverse childhood experiences among patients of all ages, including older adults,” said Anna Buhrmann, who began this research for her undergraduate thesis in McMaster University’s Bachelor of Arts and Sciences program. , Hamilton, Ontario and is a research assistant at the Institute for Life Course and Aging at the University of Toronto.
Physical illnesses that developed included
diabetescancer, migraines, arthritis, heart disease, diabetes and
chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
The links between child abuse and poor physical and mental health persisted even after accounting for income, education, smoking, heavy drinking and other causes of poor health.
“Health professionals caring for older adults need to be aware that it is never too late to refer people for counseling. A promising intervention,
cognitive behavior therapy [CBT]has been tested and found effective in reducing post-traumatic pain
stress depressive and anxiety disorder and symptoms among childhood abuse survivors,” said co-author Professor Esme Fuller-Thomson, who supervised Buhrmann’s thesis research.
The cross-sectional study was not able to determine the specific pathways through which experiencing physical abuse in childhood affects an individual’s health later in life. Current studies suggest that childhood physical abuse affects a number of physiological changes, including dysregulation of systems that regulate the body’s response to stress.
Future prospective research investigating disruptions to these systems that are already linked to various physical and mental illnesses, such as abnormal cortisol levels, may help shed light on the experience of victims of child abuse.
Data for this study were drawn from a representative sample of adults aged 60 years and older in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It compared 409 older adults who reported a history of childhood physical abuse with 4,659 of their peers who reported that they had not been physically abused during their youth. The data was extracted from the Canadian Community Health Survey.
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