(2012-10-15) Adverse Childhood Experiences Stress Public Health

The prevalence of Adverse Childhood Experience-s (ACE-s), with its associated ChronicStress, seems to be a huge Public Health issue, worthy of being a Grand Challenge.

*These eight (types of traumas) included three types of abuse -- sexual, verbal and physical. And five types of family dysfunction -- a parent who's mentally ill or alcoholic, a mother who's a domestic violence victim, a family member who's been incarcerated, a loss of a parent through divorce or abandonment (Single Parent Family). He later added emotional and physical neglect, for a total of 10 types of adverse childhood experiences, or ACEs.

Each type of adverse childhood experience counted as one point. If a person had none of the events in her or his background, the ACE score was zero.

One in six people had an ACE score of 4 or more, and one in nine had an ACE score of 5 or more.

Things start getting serious around an ACE score of 4. Compared with people with zero ACEs, those with four categories of ACEs had a 240 percent greater risk of hepatitis, were 390 percent more likely to have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (emphysema or chronic bronchitis), and a 240 percent higher risk of a sexually-transmitted disease.

The ACE Study participants were average Americans. Eighty percent were white (including Latino), 10 percent black and 10 percent Asian. They were Middle Class, middle-aged, and 74 percent were college-educated. Since they were members of KaiserPermanente, they all had jobs and great health care. Their average age was 57.*

See also http://ResilienceTrumpsAces.org/ (Resilience)