Although a growing literature describes the effects of negative childhood experiences on biological outcomes, it is difficult to compare results across studies because of differences in measures of childhood experiences, biological markers, sample characteristics, and included covariates. To ensure comparability across its analyses, this study used a single national survey of adults in the United States-the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) study-to examine comprehensively the association between adverse childhood experiences, operationalized as childhood maltreatment (CM), and biological markers of risk for poor health and to assess whether these associations differ by type of maltreatment, sex, or race. The sample included 1254, mostly White (78%), adults aged 34-86 years (mean age 57 years), 57% of whom were female. We present incidence rate ratios (IRR) from negative binomial and Poisson regressions to examine the relationships between exposure to CM (emotional, physical, and sexual abuse; emotional and physical neglect; and a CM-index reflecting frequency across all five types of maltreatment) and four biological risk summary scores (overall physiological dysregulation, cardiometabolic risk, inflammation, and hypothalamic pituitary axis/sympathetic nervous system (HPA/SNS) function). We also tested whether the effect of each type of CM varied by sex and by race. The CM-index was associated with higher overall physiological dysregulation and inflammation, but the associations were weaker and not statistically significant for cardiometabolic risk and HPA/SNS function. With the exception of a possible sex difference in the association between sexual abuse and overall physiological dysregulation, there was little evidence that the associations varied systematically by type of CM or by sex or race. We conclude that exposure to CM predicts adult biological risk, particularly inflammation. Inconsistency with previous research suggests that additional research is needed to confirm findings regarding sex and race differences.

中文翻译：

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童年遭受虐待预示着成年后生理失调，尤其是炎症。

尽管越来越多的文献描述了负面童年经历对生物学结果的影响，但由于童年经历、生物学标记、样本特征和所包含的协变量的测量存在差异，因此很难比较不同研究的结果。为了确保分析的可比性，本研究使用了一项针对美国成年人的全国性调查——美国中年研究（MIDUS），以全面检查不良童年经历（具体为儿童虐待（CM）、以及健康不良风险的生物标记，并评估这些关联是否因虐待类型、性别或种族而异。样本包括 1254 名年龄在 34-86 岁（平均年龄 57 岁）的成年人，其中大部分是白人（78%），其中 57% 是女性。我们提出负二项式和泊松回归的发生率比 (IRR)，以检查接触 CM（情感、身体和性虐待；情感和身体忽视；以及反映所有五种虐待类型的频率的 CM 指数）之间的关系以及四项生物风险总结评分（总体生理失调、心脏代谢风险、炎症和下丘脑垂体轴/交感神经系统（HPA/SNS）功能）。我们还测试了每种 CM 的效果是否因性别和种族而异。CM 指数与较高的整体生理失调和炎症相关，但这种关联较弱，并且对于心脏代谢风险和 HPA/SNS 功能没有统计学意义。除了性虐待与整体生理失调之间的关联可能存在性别差异外，几乎没有证据表明这种关联因 CM 类型或性别或种族而系统性地变化。我们的结论是，接触 CM 可以预测成人的生物学风险，特别是炎症。与之前的研究不一致表明，需要进行额外的研究来证实有关性别和种族差异的发现。