(Press-News.org) Nearly two-thirds of middle-aged and older adults in Canada report adverse childhood experiences
Hamilton, ON (Mar. 19, 20121) - New research from McMaster University has found that roughly three in every five Canadian adults aged 45 to 85 have been exposed to childhood abuse, neglect, intimate partner violence or other household adversity.
The research, which estimates the prevalence of a broad range of adverse childhood experiences, was published in CMAJ Open.
"Our research showed that adverse childhood experiences are highly prevalent in the Canadian population, with 62% of Canadian adults aged 45 to 85 reporting at least one exposure," said Divya Joshi, the study's lead author and a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact at McMaster.
The study used data collected from 44,817 participants enrolled in the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA), a large, national population-based study of health and aging. The participants completed questionnaires about adverse childhood experiences through telephone and face-to-face interviews between 2015 and 2018.
Childhood exposure to physical abuse, intimate partner violence and emotional abuse were the most prevalent types of adverse childhood experiences reported across all participants.
More than one in four adults reported exposure to physical abuse, and one in five reported exposure to intimate partner violence and emotional abuse in childhood.
The researchers also found that reporting of adverse childhood events varied by demographic factors, such as age, sex, socioeconomic status, education and sexual orientation.
People younger than 65 years, women, those with less education, lower annual household income, and those of non-heterosexual orientation reported greater exposure.
"We found that adverse childhood experiences were highly prevalent across all demographic groups, although some groups experienced an unequal or greater burden," Joshi said.
The research also showed that exposure to adverse childhood events varied across Canadian provinces.
"This research shows that strategies are needed to increase awareness of adverse childhood experiences and their long-lasting consequences," said Andrea Gonzalez, a member of the research team and an associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences at McMaster.
"We need to take measures to improve the quality of household environments, support positive parenting and promote healthy child development, as well as integrate trauma-informed care to prevent the negative consequences of adverse childhood experiences," added Gonzalez, who is a member of the Offord Centre for Child Studies and the McMaster Institute for Research on Aging.
INFORMATION:
Note to editors: Photos of the authors and the paper are attached.
For more information, contact:
Veronica McGuire
Media Relations
Faculty of Health Sciences
location: HSC-2E47
phone: (905) 525-9140 x 22169
email: vmcguir@mcmaster.ca
McMaster University | Brighter World
In 1961, physicist Ugo Fano provided the first theoretical explanation to an anomalous asymmetry observed in the spectral profiles of noble gases. He put forth an impactful interpretation of this phenomenon, now called "Fano resonance," stating that if a discrete excited state of a system falls within the energy range of a continuum of other possible states, these two can interfere with each other and give rise to abnormal peaks and dips in the system's frequency response.
Though Fano resonance can occur in various physical systems, recent progress in metasurfaces and nanotechnology has drawn attention to this phenomenon as a potentially powerful tool in optics. ...
The Research Group on Synthetic Biology for Biomedical Applications at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, Spain, has designed a cellular device capable of computing by printing cells on paper. For the first time, they have developed a living device that could be used outside the laboratory without a specialist, and it could be produced on an industrial scale at low cost. The study is published in Nature Communications and was carried out by Sira Mogas-Díez, Eva Gonzalez-Flo and Javier Macía.
We currently have many electronic devices available to us such as computers and tablets whose computing power is highly efficient. But, despite their ...
DALLAS, March 19, 2021 -- Mechanical removal of blood clots causing a stroke is increasing, yet racial differences in treatment persist, according to late-breaking science presented today at the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference 2021. The virtual meeting is March 17-19, 2021 and is a world premier meeting for researchers and clinicians dedicated to the science of stroke and brain health.
Mechanical clot-removal or endovascular therapy is a non-surgical treatment that uses tiny tubes, or catheters, to remove a blood clot. In 2015, several major clinical trials confirmed that endovascular therapy ...
In Brazil, researchers affiliated with the Center for Nuclear Energy in Agriculture (CENA) and the Luiz de Queiroz College of Agriculture (ESALQ), both part of the University of São Paulo (USP), have developed a methodology based on artificial intelligence to automate and streamline seed quality analysis, a process required by law and currently done manually by analysts accredited with the Ministry of Agriculture.
The group used light-based technology like that deployed in plant and cosmetics analysis to acquire images of the seeds. They then turned to machine learning to automate the image interpretation ...
DALLAS, March 19, 2021 -- New research found patients hospitalized with COVID-19 had a higher risk of stroke, compared with patients who had similar infectious conditions such as influenza and sepsis in prior studies. Those who had an ischemic stroke were more likely to be older, male, Black race, or have high blood pressure, Type 2 diabetes or an irregular heartbeat (atrial fibrillation) compared with other COVID-19 patients, according to late-breaking science presented today at the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference 2021. The meeting is being held virtually, March 17-19, 2021 and is a world premier meeting for researchers and clinicians dedicated ...
Schizophrenia and personality disorders are the most disabling mental health conditions to live with, according to scientists from The University of Queensland.
A Danish-Australian research team studied a cohort of 6.9 million Danish residents in the Danish Psychiatric Central Research Register to understand the burden of disability associated with 18 mental and substance use disorders.
Professor John McGrath from UQ Queensland Brain Institute's and the Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research said the data was used to develop a new method for measuring disability that took comorbidities into account.
"Traditionally the impact of mental disorders has been presented for an entire nation, ...
Key takeaways
Nearly half of gastrointestinal cancer operations in this study were performed at 42 U.S. News & World Report "Best Hospitals."
These top-ranked hospitals performed more than four times the annual case volume of unranked hospitals.
Higher hospital case volume was associated with better outcomes, even after accounting for patient characteristics and complicating factors.
Patients with complex gastrointestinal (GI) cancers may fare better by seeking surgical care at high-volume, top-ranked hospitals.
CHICAGO (March 19, 2021, 9 a.m. CDT): A new study reinforces the principle that "practice makes perfect" ...
The combination of cancer therapy lenalidomide plus the steroid dexamethasone (together called Rd) is considered standard treatment for elderly patients with multiple myeloma. However, prolonged steroid use can be harmful for some older adults.
A new study published in Blood found that switching select older patients to a lower dose of lenalidomide and discontinuing dexamethasone after nine months was not only safe, but it also yielded similar outcomes as compared with patients who received continuous Rd.
Multiple myeloma, a cancer affecting the blood plasma cells (a type of white blood cell in the bone marrow), most commonly ...
3,938 moths are part of a major insect study based on artificial intelligence, and researchers from Aarhus University have just published their results in the scientific journal Sensors.
They have developed a counting machine that uses ultraviolet light to attract insects and register them with image recognition. The invention may have a decisive impact on research into climate change and biodiversity.
"If we can monitor the development of moth populations, we can gain new knowledge about how climate change affects our nature. Our technology takes an important step towards automating the very extensive work entailed in counting insects," ...
We all feel physical pain in different ways, but people with nerve injuries often have a dysfunctional pain suppression system, making them particularly prone to discomfort.
Now researchers have uncovered that virtual reality (VR) can reduce types of pain typically seen in patients with nerve injuries - and that VR can boost the dysfunctional pain suppression system, giving people with chronic pain a possible game-changing hope.
Dr Sam Hughes, Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Plymouth, led the study focusing on conditioned pain modulation ...
