Associations of childhood trauma with long-term diseases and alcohol and nicotine use disorders in Czech and Slovak representative samples

Abstract

Objective: The abuse and neglect of a child is a major public health problem with serious psychosocial, health and economic consequences. The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between various types of childhood trauma, selected long-term diseases and alcohol and nicotine use disorder in Czech and Slovak representative samples. Methods: Data on retrospective reporting about selected long-term diseases, alcohol and nicotine use disorder (CAGE Questionnaire) and childhood maltreatment (Childhood Trauma Questionnaire; CTQ) in two representative samples (Czech sample: n = 1800, 48.7% men, mean age 46.61 ± 17.4; Slovak sample: n = 1018, 48.7% men, mean age: 46.2 ± 16.6) was collected. Multinomial logistic regression models were used to assess the relationships between childhood maltreatment and long-term diseases. Results: There is a higher occurrence of some long-term diseases (such as diabetes, obesity, allergy, asthma) and alcohol and nicotine use disorder in the Czech sample; however, in the Slovak sample the associations between child maltreatment and long-term diseases are stronger overall. Emotional abuse predicts the occurrence of all the studied long-term diseases, and the concurrent occurrence of emotional abuse and neglect significantly predicts the reporting of most diseases. All types of childhood trauma were strong predictors of reporting the occurrence of three or more long-term diseases. Conclusion: The extent of reporting childhood trauma and associations with long-term diseases in the Czech and Slovak population is a challenge for the strengthening of preventive and therapeutic programmes in psychosocial and psychiatric care for children and adolescents to prevent later negative consequences on health.