Report Links Childhood Trauma to Adult Illnesses

One in six California adults has experienced significant childhood stress, in the form of abuse, neglect or family dysfunction, that significantly increases their odds of having dementia or Alzheimer’s, kidney disease and other health problems, according to a pioneering study released by the Public Health Institute (PHI) and  the Center for Youth Wellness.

It’s a major public health crisis that has largely been ignored, said Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, founder and CEO of the Center, as reported in the San Francisco Chronicle Thursday.

PHI’s Survey Research Group contributed to the report, “A Hidden Crisis: Findings on Adverse Childhood Experiences in California.”

Acute childhood stress is not a poor person’s problem or a black person’s problem — toxic stress is a universal problem, Burke Harris told the Chronicle.

Read additional coverage of the report in the Huffington Post, KQED’s State of Health blog, The Chronicle of Social Change, ColorLines magazine, the Merced Sun Star,  the Turlock Journal, The Ceres Courier and the Jacksonville Daily News. For more on the groundbreaking report, see the press release.

Originally published by San Francisco Chronicle