WASHINGTON, Jun 13, 2002 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- Child abuse is a national public health problem and new data show its victims suffer lifelong health consequences, including higher rates of cancer, heart disease, and psychological illnesses, child welfare advocates reported Thursday at a briefing for Congress.
"This opportunity is to understand the depth of a national tragedy," said Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., who sponsored the briefing, "A National Call to Action, a Movement to End Child Abuse and Neglect." America needs "a national voice" on this issue, she said. "We've got to put a Congressional voice behind the authentic voices. We need to amplify."
The most startling research was presented at the briefing by Dr. Robert F. Anda of the Centers and Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, which conducted a recent study on the long-term effects of child abuse throughout life.
The study, conducted in cooperation with Kaiser Permanente, the health maintenance organization headquartered in Oakland, Calif., looked at 17,421 individuals from middle class homes around the San Diego area. Half of these people had suffered at least one abusive childhood experience. One-quarter of them had endured at least two such experiences, and 22 percent had been sexually abused.
Results showed participants abused as children were 103 percent more likely to smoke, 95 percent more likely to become severely obese, placing themselves at greater risk for obesity-related diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease. Adults who suffered child abuse were 43 percent were more likely to become suicidal, 103 percent more likely to become alcoholics and 192 percent more likely to develop a drug addiction.
Anda also showed images comparing the brains of healthy children to those of abused children. The brains of healthy children showed greater activity overall. One's environment strongly affects the wiring of the developing brain in a child, Anda said.
"Early on, very early on, children are very vulnerable to the effects of abuse," he said. Their brains are maturing and external influences and affect neurological growth. For example, children who are abused go into fight-or-flight syndrome, in which potent stress-related chemicals such as adrenaline, and brain chemicals such as corticotropin-releasing factor, can rise dramatically. If a child remains in a constant state a fear, these chemicals tend not to subside, which can impair normal development, Anda explained.
That evidence is echoed elsewhere, Murray Straus, a sociology professor at the University of New Hampshire in Dunham, N.H., and director of the family research laboratory, told United Press International.
"Being a victim of abuse is like being victim of chronic stress, because it is chronic stress, and that inhibits normal physiological growth," Straus said. "It's a continuum. Children who are treated violently are going to have more trouble in life."
Other findings from the CDC study showed child abuse victims were more likely to have higher rates of sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV and AIDS, they were more likely to engage in risky sexual behavior as a teen, they were more likely to be involved in a teen pregnancy, have more doctor's visits over the years, and higher rates of absenteeism from school and work.
Eva Bunnell, an executive committee member of the National Call to Action and chairwoman of the Connecticut Health Policy Project of the Connecticut Medicaid Council's Behavioral Health Subcommittee, said these lingering health effects from child abuse illustrate the overdue need for a national office designed to specifically handle protecting children. Bunnell compared such an office to the newly created Cabinet-level homeland security office President Bush announced last week.
"Nowhere on the national landscape do I see anything like what the president proposes," for homeland security, Bunnell said at the briefing. "Children of abuse absolutely understand what terrorism is today ... tragically they don't need to imagine the possibility of an attack."
Bunnell added, "Wouldn't our children benefit from a Cabinet-level department?"
Copyright 2002 by United Press International.