142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition

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Under the skin: The biological impact of community and family violence in children

142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition (November 15 - November 19, 2014): http://www.apha.org/events-and-meetings/annual
Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Katherine Theall, PhD , Department of Global Community Health and Behavioral Sciences, Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, New Orleans, LA
Ashley Wennerstrom, PhD, MPH , Tulane University School of Medicine, New Orleans, LA
Stacy Drury, MD, PhD , School of Medicine, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA
Elizabeth Shirtcliff, PhD , Department of Psychology, University of New Orleans, New Orleans, LA
Background: To enhance the understanding of biological mechanisms connecting early adversity and negative health, we examine the association between community and family violence and telomere length in youth.  These specific exposures were selected due to their established links with negative health consequences across the life-course.

Methods: Children, age 5-15, were recruited from the greater New Orleans area. Exposure to violence was assessed through caregiver report. Telomere length, from buccal cell DNA (bTL), was determined using MMQ-PCR in 80 children.  The association between bTL and adversity exposure was tested.  

Results: Approximately 32% of children had witnessed some form of community violence; 30% witnessed domestic violence; 48% had a family member incarcerated; and 25% witnessed someone close to them being hurt.  Cumulative exposure to community and family violence was significantly associated with bTL in a sex-dependent manner.  Controlling for other sociodemographic factors, bTL was significantly shorter in children with higher exposure to violence. Witnessing domestic violence exerted a particularly potent impact.

Conclusions: bTL is a molecular biomarker of adversity and allostatic load that is detectable in childhood. The present results extend previous studies by demonstrating that telomeres are sensitive to adversity within the overarching family domain. These findings suggest that the family ecology may be an important target for interventions to reduce the biological impact of adversity in the lives of children.

Learning Areas:

Social and behavioral sciences

Learning Objectives:
Discuss the impact of violence on physiologic stress. Define cellular stress. Assess the role of community and family violence on physiologic stress.

Keyword(s): Child Health, Violence & Injury Prevention

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have been the principal or co-principal of multiple federally funded grants focusing on social epidemiology and the role of community and household factors in shaping women's and children's health inequities. Among my scientific interests has been the role of violence on biologic stress in children.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

Back to: 4187.1: Family Violence Prevention Poster Session 2