Childhood maltreatment as a risk factor for cancer: findings from a population-based survey of Canadian adults

Abstract

Background: Childhood maltreatment (CM) is an established risk factor for various mental and substance use disorders. This study adds to existing evidence that CM may also be a risk factor for cancer. Methods: Based on data from a sample of 9783 men and 12,132 women from the 2012 Canadian Community Health Survey-Mental Health (CCHS-MH), this analysis explores mediated associations between cancer in adulthood and different levels of exposure to three types of CM-childhood physical abuse (CPA), childhood sexual abuse (CSA), and childhood exposure to intimate partner violence (CEIPV). "Cancer" was defined as an affirmative response to either of these questions: "Do you have cancer?" or "Have you ever been diagnosed with cancer?" The potential mediators were: smoking, depression, alcohol abuse/dependence, life stress, obesity, and physical activity. Results: For women, but not men, having experienced CM was significantly associated with a cancer diagnosis in adulthood, even when effects due to age and socio-demographic characteristics were controlled. Smoking, life stress, depression, and alcohol abuse/dependence reduced the strength of the association between CM and cancer in women. However, most associations remained statistically significant when controlling for effects due to these behavioural and other mediators. Evidence indicated a "dose-response" relationship, in that the likelihood of reporting cancer increased with the number of abuse types (CPA, CSA, CEIPV) reported, and with the severity of CPA. Conclusions: The analyses suggest an association between CM and cancer in women, even when the effects of known risk factors were taken into account. The association was graded, becoming stronger as CM exposure increased. Implications for the provision of cancer screening and other health care services to women with histories of CM to reduce health disparities are discussed.

How biomarker patterns can be utilized to identify individuals with a high disease burden: a bioinformatics approach towards predictive, preventive, and personalized (3P) medicine

“…The CM prevalences found here are in line with meta-analytic findings [ 48 ] as well as the result that CM-exposed individuals have a higher disease burden compared to non-exposed individuals is supported by previous evidence [ 49 – 51 ]. Given the association of CM to inflammatory processes [ 16 , 43 – 45 ], one mechanism possibly linking CM to diseases might be the biochemical clusters from study 1.…”

WITHDRAWN: Intimate partner violence and mental health problems among Sami and non-Sami in Norway – the SAMINOR 2 Questionnaire Survey.

“…Mental health problems Psychological distress was measured using the HSCL-10, which is primarily comprised of symptoms of anxiety and depression (31). The HSCL-10 addresses respondents' experiences during the previous 4 weeks of: (1) sudden anxiety, (2) anxiousness, (3) dizziness, (4) tension/stress, (5) self-blame, (6) sleeplessness, (7) sadness, (8) worthlessness, (9) nding everything burdensome, and (10) hopelessness. Each item was rated on a 4-point scale, from 1 "Not at all bothered" to 4 "Extremely bothered".…”

“…It is estimated that approximately 30% of ever-partnered women have experienced physical and/or sexual violence at the hands of an intimate partner (1). Broad ranges of health outcomes, including mental health problems, have been associated with IPV among women (6)(7)(8). An early meta-analysis by Golding reported that suicidal ideation, substance abuse, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and depression were three to ve times more frequent among female victims of IPV when compared with non-victimized women (9).…”

The long-term impact of early adverse experience on adaptive functioning: a pilot study integrating measures of mental status, nonverbal communication, and heart rate variability

“…Childhood and adolescence are pivotal developmental stages for the maturation of biological and behavioural systems, and CM can disrupt a child's development, increasing the risk of physical and mental health issues across the lifespan (Duncan et al, 2015 ; Guo et al, 2021 ; Halpern et al, 2018 ; Herrenkohl & Jung, 2016 ; Hovdestad et al, 2020 ; Humphreys et al, 2020 ; Kaufman & Torbey, 2019 ; Nakayama et al, 2020 ; Romano et al, 2015 ; Shields et al, 2016 ; Soares et al, 2020 ; Thompson et al, 2017 ; Ting et al, 2022 ).…”