wife Health - Inner-City Women’s Health Problems Linked to Childhood Traumas

Inner-City Women’s Health Problems Linked to Childhood Traumas

New research has traced the problems of women with chronic health districts with abuse and neglect in childhood.

The new study from Case Western Reserve University offers more evidence linking child abuse with serious health problems in adults, said Meeyoung O. Min, Ph.D., assistant professor of social work at the University.

The research team focused on disadvantaged neighborhoods Min women who participated in a series of studies on the development of children with prenatal cocaine exposure.

After removal of factors such as age, education and race, researchers found that childhood trauma affects physical health in adulthood through the life of drug addiction, smoking, adverse life events and greater distress psychological.

The study also found that emotional problems and difficulties of life, such as financial and family problems - as well as being re-victimized as adults - have led to health problems among young urban women with a history of drug use.

The study analyzed data from 279 women who gave birth to a publicly funded education in Cleveland between 1994 and 1996 the hospital. They were among the 404 mothers with children recruited for a series of studies on the effects of prenatal cocaine exposure on the development of their children.

Around eight out of 10 were African American, half used cocaine during pregnancy. A quarter were married, 98 percent were of low socioeconomic status, and about half were unemployed when they gave birth. More than one in four women have lost custody of their children. They were aged 31 to 54 years, with a mean age of 40 years, when evaluated their physical health.

Seven in 10 have one or more types of abuse: sexual abuse (32 percent), physical abuse (45 percent), emotional abuse (37 percent), emotional neglect (30 percent) and physical neglect (45 percent).

About half also reported a chronic health problem, mainly hypertension, lung disease and pain syndromes.

The women provided information about their lives and their children in research sessions of five hours, when their children were 4, 6, 11 and 12 years. The information included personal accounts of childhood trauma, responses from health surveys, diagnostic examination of alcohol dependence, cocaine or marijuana, types of stresses of everyday life and psychological distress and figure takes into their lives .

Min said that women were young enough to have chronic health problems. The study poses risks to their health and quality of life in the elderly, he said.

Min said he hoped that interventions can be developed to help these women avoid behaviors that lead to other tobacco addiction mental health and illegal substances, and additional trauma.

He noted that doctors should be aware of the violence and childhood trauma as a potential source of health problems, especially among women in low-income urban communities. It is also expected that the results of the study will allow the community health care to develop more personalized treatment for these women.

Given its role in promoting emotional and cognitive development of their children, women with childhood trauma potentially put their children at risk through a continuous series of negative life events or bad parents.