Adverse Childhood Events and Their Association with Adverse Health Outcomes: A Sacramento County (California) Study

Adverse Childhood Events (ACEs) may negatively impact mental, emotional, and physical health. The study’s main goal was to understand ACEs and associated adverse health outcomes, specifically focusing on the ACE exposures to Sacramento County residents. Sacramento County was chosen as it includes a big metropolitan community of about 1.5 million people. PubMed was used to identify research articles on the correlation between ACEs and adverse health outcomes during adulthood, and the disparities in healthcare services provided to County residents. Generally, the results demonstrate that ACEs are associated with a range of negative health outcomes. There is a need for interventions to mitigate the adverse impact that ACEs have on the health of both pediatric and adult populations. Studies indicate that County residents have a high probability of experiencing an ACE exposure or a set of circumstances that exacerbate the effect of ACEs. Some examples of ACEs specific to residents include low socioeconomic status or severe economic hardship, medical trauma, household dysfunction, discrimination, hunger, limited resource accessibility, and poor mental health. Despite the incomplete knowledge on ACEs from a biological standpoint, unpredictable range of ACE health outcomes, and non-standardized treatment protocols, data support that ACEs adversely impact the health status of residents, and studies support intervention.

Adverse Childhood Events and Health Biomarkers: A Systematic Review

Background: This systematic review aimed to summarize evidence reporting epigenetic and/or neuro-immuno-endocrine embedding of adverse childhood events (ACEs) in children, with a particular focus on the short-term biological effect of those experiences.Methods: A search was conducted in PsycINFO®, PubMed®, Isi Web of Knowledge and Scopus, until July 2019, to identify papers reporting the short-term biological effects of exposure to ACEs.Results: The search identified 58 studies, that were included in the review. Regarding exposure, the type of ACE more frequently reported was sexual abuse (n = 26), followed by life stressors (n = 20) and physical abuse (n = 19). The majority (n = 17) of studies showed a positive association between ACEs and biomarkers of the immune system. Regarding DNA methylation 18 studies showed more methylation in participants exposed to ACEs. Two studies presented the effect of ACEs on telomere length and showed that exposure was associated with shorter telomere length.Conclusion: Overall the associations observed across studies followed the hypothesis that ACEs are associated with biological risk already at early ages. This is supporting evidence that ACEs appear to get “under the skin” and induce physiological changes and these alterations might be strongly associated with later development of disease.