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Inflammatory burden of adolescents with childhood maltreatment: results from baseline data of a school cohort

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Abstract

Increasing studies have investigated inflammatory burden of adults with childhood adversity, but less is known about how childhood maltreatment affects the inflammation level of adolescents. Baseline data of a school cohort of physical and mental health status and life experience survey on primary and secondary school students in Anhui Province, China was used. Childhood maltreatment of children and adolescents was assessed by Chinese version of Childhood Trauma Questionnaire-Short Form (CTQ-SF). Urine samples were collected to assess levels of soluble urokinase Plasminogen Activator Receptor (suPAR), C-reactive protein (CRP) and cytokines interleukin-6 (IL-6) by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Logistic regression was conducted to examine the association between childhood maltreatment exposure and risk of high inflammation burden. A total of 844 students were included with mean age 11.41 ± 1.57 years old. Adolescents with emotional abuse were significantly more likely to have high level of IL-6 (OR = 3.59, 95% CI 1.16–11.14). In addition, adolescents with emotional abuse were more likely to show high IL-6 and high suPAR combination (OR = 33.41, 95% CI 1.69–659.22), and high IL-6 and low CRP combination (OR = 4.34, 95% CI 1.29–14.55). Subgroup analyses showed that emotional abuse was associated with high IL-6 burden among boys or adolescents with depression. Childhood emotional abuse was positively associated with higher burden of IL-6. Early detection and prevention of emotional abuse for children and adolescents, especially for boys or adolescents with depression status, may be helpful for preventing elevated inflammatory burden and related health problems.

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Data availability

Data used in this study will be available under the reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to appreciate the warm help and cooperation of teachers of local school and staffs of local disease control and prevention center. We also gave many thanks for students who participated in our study.

Funding

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant number: 81872704).

Author information

Author notes

  1. Guangbo Qu, Haixia Liu and Shaodi Ma contributed equally and should be considered as co-first authors.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, School of Public Health, Anhui Medical University, No. 81 Meishan Road, Hefei, 230032, Anhui, China

    Guangbo Qu, Haixia Liu, Shaodi Ma, Tiantian Han, Huimei Zhang & Yehuan Sun

  2. Fuyang Center for Disease Control and Prevention, No.19, Zhongnan Avenue, Fuyang, 236000, Anhui, China

    Liang Sun

  3. Ma’anshan Center for Disease Control and Prevention, No.849, Jiangdong Avenue, Ma’anshan, 243000, Anhui, China

    Qirong Qin

  4. Changfeng Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Changfeng, Anhui, China

    Mingchun Chen

  5. Chaohu Hospital, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, 238000, Anhui, China

    Yehuan Sun

  6. Center for Evidence-Based Practice, Anhui Medical University, No. 81 Meishan Road, Hefei, 230032, Anhui, China

    Yehuan Sun

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  1. Guangbo Qu
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Contributions

SY contributed to study design and manuscript revision. QG wrote the main manuscript draft and participated in data collection. LH and MS contributed to data collection and statistical analysis. HT and ZH participated in data collection. SL, QQ, and CM supervised the research progress and quality and revised the manuscript. All authors reviewed the manuscript and approved to submit the final version of manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yehuan Sun.

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All authors declared that there was no conflict of interest.

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Qu, G., Liu, H., Ma, S. et al. Inflammatory burden of adolescents with childhood maltreatment: results from baseline data of a school cohort. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry 33, 539–548 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-023-02181-0

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