Adverse childhood experiences and adult diet quality

Abstract

Childhood trauma is strongly associated with poor health outcomes. Although many studies have found associations between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), a well-established indicator of childhood trauma and diet-related health outcomes, few have explored the relationship between ACEs and diet quality, despite growing literature in epidemiology and neurobiology suggesting that childhood trauma has an important but poorly understood relationship with diet. Thus, we performed a cross-sectional study of the association of ACEs and adult diet quality in the Southern Community Cohort Study, a largely low-income and racially diverse population in the southeastern United States. We used ordinal logistic regression to estimate the association of ACEs with the Healthy Eating Index-2010 (HEI-10) score among 30 854 adults aged 40–79 enrolled from 2002 to 2009. Having experienced any ACE was associated with higher odds of worse HEI-10 among all (odds ratio (OR) 1⋅22; 95 % confidence interval (CI) 1⋅17, 1⋅27), and for all race–sex groups, and remained significant after adjustment for adult income. The increasing number of ACEs was also associated with increasing odds of a worse HEI-10 (OR for 4+ ACEs: 1⋅34; 95 % CI 1⋅27, 1⋅42). The association with worse HEI-10 score was especially strong for ACEs in the household dysfunction category, including having a family member in prison (OR 1⋅34; 95 % CI 1⋅25, 1⋅42) and parents divorced (OR 1⋅25; 95 % CI 1⋅20, 1⋅31). In summary, ACEs are associated with poor adult diet quality, independent of race, sex and adult income. Research is needed to explore whether trauma intervention strategies can impact adult diet quality.

Association of adverse childhood experiences with irritable bowel syndrome in Mexican adults: A cross‐sectional study

“…25,26 ACEs are known to alter dietary behaviors, thereby increasing susceptibility to eating disorders. [27][28][29] Such disorders are particularly prevalent among individuals with IBS. 30,31 Additionally, ACEsinduced sleep disturbances can amplify IBS manifestations.…”

“…ACEs are known to alter dietary behaviors, thereby increasing susceptibility to eating disorders 27–29 . Such disorders are particularly prevalent among individuals with IBS 30,31 .…”

Evidence for the Association Between Adverse Childhood Family Environment, Child Abuse, and Caregiver Warmth and Cardiovascular Health Across the Lifespan: The Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) Study

“…Evidence to the first comes from studies demonstrating a relationship linking both trauma and RF with smoking and substance use including finding a link between RF and smoking later in life, 12 and a link between ELS and both substance use and unhealthy diet in adulthood. [38][39][40] It has been hypothesized that the association may be due to the use of substances as a coping mechanism to deal with exposure to adversity. 39 It is also possible that household challenges (eg, disorganization) and family environment (eg, poor physical and mental health of caregivers) may be more likely to impact habits experienced and learned by children.…”

“…39 It is also possible that household challenges (eg, disorganization) and family environment (eg, poor physical and mental health of caregivers) may be more likely to impact habits experienced and learned by children. 40 To the second pathway, ELS plays a key role in dysregulating the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and cortisol curve, as well as other systems (cardiac, inflammatory, metabolic), which accumulate over time (allostatic load) to impact cardiometabolic risk into adulthood. 11,17,41,42 One of the primary mechanisms for these pathways to converge may be through adiposity.…”

Adverse Childhood Experience as a Risk Factor for Developing Type 2 Diabetes among the Jazan Population: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…The study’s cross-sectional design could not explain the temporal relationship between the study variables. Unlike some previous studies [ 36 ], different types of ACEs, such as the correlation of sexual abuse between ACEs, physical health, and diet, were not investigated in our study. However, we studied alcohol and substance abuse, which was not previously studied in Saudi Arabia [ 13 ], and our sample was homogeneous, increasing the accuracy of our results.…”