Diabetes is a significant pubic health problem among children and adolescents, and its prevalence has rapidly increased in recent years (1). There is some evidence to suggest that chronic stress is associated with onset of physical illness, such as diabetes (2). Childhood abuse is thought to be one source of severe, persistent stress. Preclinical data suggest that stress is associated with onset of diabetes (3). No previous study has investigated this hypothesis in a epidemiologic sample of humans. To obtain preliminary evidence in support of this hypothesized etiologic factor, we sought to determine the association between childhood emotional and physical abuse and the odds of self-reported diabetes among adults in the general population.
Multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to analyze data from the Midlife Development in the U.S. Survey (MIDUS) (n = 3,032) (4), a representative sample of adults aged 25–74 years in the U.S., in order to compute odds ratios (ORs) (with 95% CIs) of the association between history of childhood abuse and self-reported diabetes. Our results revealed that self-reported diabetes occurred in 4.8% of the adult population (aged 25–74 years). Childhood abuse was associated with a significantly increased odds of self-reported diabetes (OR 2.0 [95% CI 1.04–2.8]), which persisted after adjusting for differences in sociodemographic characteristics and current common mental disorders. Specifically, individuals who reported maternal emotional abuse (OR 3.4 [95% CI 1.9–6.4]), maternal physical abuse (2.8 [1.2–6.4]), and severe maternal physical abuse (3.4 [1.2–9.4]) had significantly higher rates of self-reported diabetes.
Our findings provide preliminary support for the hypothesis that childhood abuse may be associated with increased likelihood of self-reported diabetes among adults in the community. Limitations of our analyses include lack of information on type of diabetes, family history, and self-reported diabetes without data on physiological measures. Replication of these findings is needed. Future studies that use longitudinal data with more detailed information on diabetes type, age of onset, childhood abuse experience, and family history may help to improve our understanding of the mechanism of this observed association.
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Address correspondence to Dr. Renee D. Goodwin, Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, 1051 Riverside Dr., Unit 43, New York, NY 10032. E-mail: [email protected].
