Relationship between individual categories of adverse childhood experience and diabetes in adulthood in a sample of US adults: Does it differ by gender?

AIMS: ACEs are known to increase risk for diabetes in adulthood. However, little is known about the differential impact of individual ACE categories on diabetes risk, and whether this relationship is gender specific.

METHODS

Data from the 2011 BRFSS was used in this study. Participants included 48,526 adults who completed the ACE module across 5 states. Using logistic regression, we examined the odds of diabetes in adulthood related to eight individual categories of ACEs: sexual abuse, physical abuse, verbal abuse, mental illness, substance abuse, incarceration, separation/divorce, and violence. A gender interaction term was included to test if this relationship varied between men and women.

RESULTS

In adjusted analyses, sexual abuse (OR 1.57, CI 1.240; 1.995) had the strongest positive association followed by verbal (OR 1.29, CI 1.117; 1.484) and physical abuse (OR 1.26, CI 1.040; 1.516). Having a parent with mental illness was also significantly associated with increased odds of diabetes (OR 1.19, CI 0.996; 1.416). No interaction between ACEs and diabetes status by gender in any of the eight categories was found.

CONCLUSIONS

Overall, this study found that four ACE categories were significantly associated with increased odds of diabetes in adulthood with sexual abuse being the strongest predictor.