Childhood Violence and Long-term Consequences among Urban Pregnant Women

Childhood violence has been linked to a variety of health outcomes in adulthood including substance use, depression, poor health status and sexual risk taking; however, little research has focused on the impact of childhood violence on behavior and health during pregnancy.Pregnant women less than 20 weeks gestation seeking care in an urban Emergency Department (ED) were recruited. Demographic information, prior and current violence, current depression, stress, substance use and current/past health conditions were collected and bivariate analyses were used to assess the relationship between childhood violence and selected behaviors and health outcomes. Ninety percent of women were African American, the mean age was 23 years, and thirty percent (n=444) reported at least one episode of childhood violence by a close family member before the age of 16. Pregnant women reporting childhood violence were significantly more likely to report a higher frequency of pelvic inflammatory disease, gonorrhea, syphilis, Chlamydia, genital warts; a higher level of depression and stress; and a higher proportion of confirmed cigarette, alcohol, cocaine and marijuana use during pregnancy. Twenty two percent of women reporting childhood violence were also experiencing current violence (OR: 1.29, 95% CI: 1.01-1.65). We then examined the group of pregnant women who reported childhood violence, but no current violence, and continued to find a significantly higher proportion of prior STDs (OR=1.58, 95%1.22-2.04) and confirmed cigarette use (OR:1.62, 95% CI: 1.19-2.19). Understanding the long-term consequences of childhood violence may help in recognizing the full impact of this problem which may have multi-generational effects.