University of Toronto — MedicalXPress, Thursday 7 July 2022
Older adults who were physically abused as children were significantly more likely to develop chronic pain and chronic physical illness in later life, according to a newly-released study by University of Toronto researchers. They were also twice as likely to develop depression and anxiety disorders compared to those without this early trauma. The physical illnesses that developed included diabetes, cancer, migraines, arthritis, heart disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
“Sadly, our findings suggest that the traumatic experience of childhood physical abuse can influence both physical and mental health many decades later. It also underlines the importance of assessing for adverse childhood experiences among patients of all ages, including older adults,” said Anna Buhrmann, a research assistant at The Institute of Life Course & Aging at The University of Toronto. The links between childhood abuse and poor physical and mental health persisted even after accounting for income, education, smoking, binge drinking, and other causes of poor health. The data were drawn from a representative sample of adults aged 60 and older in British Columbia, Canada, comparing 409 older adults who reported a history of childhood physical abuse to 4,659 of their peers who reported they had not been abused during their youth.
“Health professionals serving older adults need to be aware that it is never too late to refer people for counselling. A promising intervention, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), has been tested and found effective at reducing post-traumatic stress disorder and depressive and anxiety symptoms among survivors of childhood abuse,” said co-author Professor Esme Fuller-Thomson, Director of the Institute of Life Course & Aging at the University of Toronto’s Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work.