ABSTRACT
Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) encompass many possible traumatic and distressing experiences that occur in childhood. Such experiences include traumas such as abuse or neglect but may also include experiences of illness, injury, loss or separation, witnessing a serious event, experiencing a natural disaster and significant changes in the home environment. Research has identified an association between ACEs, such as abuse, household dysfunction, and poverty, and an increased likelihood of developing future health risk factors such as smoking, alcohol and drug use, physical inactivity, and obesity, as well as future chronic illnesses including cardiovascular, lung and liver diseases, and cancer which are, in part, related to these identified risk factors [1-3]. Work by Goodwin &
Stein (2004), support these results showing that adults who had previously experienced childhood physical abuse, sexual abuse or neglect were 3.7 times more likely to develop cardiovascular disease (CVD) compared to others [4]. Stein and colleagues (2010) similarly showed that the accumulation of greater than three ACEs was associated with hypertension among adults [5]. Childhood factors including adverse events, socioeconomic status, illness, and growth patterns have also been linked to physiological differences in adult cardiovascular systems, accounting for 3.2% of variation of intima media thickness of the carotid artery in men and 2.2% variation in women [6]. Although this is a small effect, the fact that it remains significant after such a long latency period underscores its importance to cardiovascular health.
