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Childhood trauma and adulthood physical health in Mexico

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Abstract

Background

The present study examined the effect of childhood trauma on adulthood physical health among a randomly selected sample of adults (N = 2,177) in urban Mexico.

Methods

Adults were interviewed about their experiences of trauma, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and physical health symptoms using Module K of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview, the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, and the Physical Symptoms Checklist.

Results

Trauma was prevalent, with 35% reporting a traumatic event in childhood. In general, men reported more childhood trauma than women, with the exception of childhood sexual violence where women reported more exposure. For men, childhood sexual violence was related to total and all physical health symptom subscales. For women, childhood sexual violence was related to total, muscular-skeletal, and gastrointestinal-urinary symptoms; hazards/accidents in childhood were related to total, muscular-skeletal, cardio-pulmonary, and nose-throat symptom subscales. Depression mediated the relationship between childhood sexual violence and physical health symptoms for men and women. Among women only, PTSD mediated the relationship between childhood sexual violence and total, muscular-skeletal, and gastrointestinal-urinary symptoms. PTSD also mediated the relationship between hazards/accidents in childhood and total, muscular-skeletal, cardio-pulmonary, and nose-throat symptoms.

Conclusion

These findings can be used to increase awareness among general practitioners, as well as community stakeholders, about the prevalence of childhood trauma in Mexican communities and its impact on subsequent physical health outcomes. With this awareness, screening practices could be developed to identify those with trauma histories in order to increase positive health outcomes among trauma survivors.

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Notes

  1. The proportion of women in the sample was higher than it should have been (55%) according to Mexican census data. Preliminary analyses indicated that the bias occurred at the point of selection for the psychological interview, although the reason for this is not clear. Fieldwork supervisors reviewed audiotapes of each interview and verified that the interviewer selected the appropriate adult (the one with the most recent birthday) for the psychological interview regardless of who gave the sociodemographic interview or who was home at the time of that initial interview. Because information was collected about all household members during the initial interview, it was possible to compare selected men and women to the larger “populations” from which they were chosen on several variables. Analyses of the household demographic data indicated that female participants were quite representative of the larger population of women, but among male participants, younger, lower-income, and less-educated men were underrepresented. However, the magnitude of this bias appeared to be relatively small, with effect sizes ranging between .09–.12.

  2. It is important to note that before undertaking our epidemiologic study we conducted preliminary research to determine whether PTSD was a relevant construct for Mexican trauma survivors. Results from qualitative interviews determined that Mexican respondents mentioned 14 out of the 17 specific PTSD criterion symptoms with little or no prompting (Norris et al. 2001b). In a subsequent quantitative study conducted with samples of disaster victims from the US and Mexico, a four-factor measurement model representing the accepted multi-criterion conceptualization of PTSD fit the data of the US and Mexican samples equally well (Norris et al. 2001a). Both studies implied that PTSD is a relevant and measurable construct in Mexico.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by Grant No. 2 R01 MH51278 from the National Institute of Mental Health, Fran H. Norris, Principal Investigator, Arthur D. Murphy, Co-Principal Investigator

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Hawaii, 2430 Campus Road, Gartley 110, Honolulu, HI, 96822, USA

    Charlene K. Baker

  2. Dartmouth Medical School and National Center for PTSD, Lebanon, NH, USA

    Fran H. Norris

  3. University of North Carolina Greensboro, Greensboro, NC, USA

    Eric C. Jones & Arthur D. Murphy

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  1. Charlene K. Baker
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  2. Fran H. Norris
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  3. Eric C. Jones
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  4. Arthur D. Murphy
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Correspondence to Charlene K. Baker.

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Baker, C.K., Norris, F.H., Jones, E.C. et al. Childhood trauma and adulthood physical health in Mexico. J Behav Med 32, 255–269 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10865-009-9199-2

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