Cited by 71Child Abuse and TraumaPosttraumatic Stress Disorder ResearchChild Welfare and Adoption

Associations of adverse childhood experiences with past-year DSM-5 psychiatric and substance use disorders in older adults

Open access
Rhee, Taeho Greg, Barry, Lisa C., Kuchel, George A., Steffens, David C., Wilkinson, Samuel T.·2019·Journal of the American Geriatrics Society

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: To examine the prevalence of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and the associations of ACEs with psychiatric and substance use disorders among older adults in the United States. DESIGN: Cross‐sectional analysis of the 2012‐2013 National Epidemiological Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions Wave III (NESARC‐III). SETTING: Nationally representative drug‐related health interview survey in the United States. PARTICIPANTS: Survey respondents aged 65 or older (n = 5806 unweighted). MEASUREMENTS: ACEs, the key independent variable, were assessed using validated measures. Outcome variables consisted of past‐year psychiatric disorders (eg, major depressive disorder and generalized anxiety disorder) and substance use disorders (eg, alcohol use disorder) using criteria from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition . We estimated the national prevalence of ACEs in older adults and used multivariable‐adjusted logistic regression analyses to assess the association between ACEs and the outcomes after adjusting for sociodemographics and clinical comorbidities. RESULTS: Overall, 35.9% of older adults, representative of 14.8 million older adults nationwide, reported some form of ACEs. The most common types were parental psychopathology (20.3%), other traumatic events (14.0%), and physical/psychological abuse (8.4%). Having experienced any ACEs was associated with higher odds of having a past‐year psychiatric disorder (adjusted odds ratio = 2.11; 95% confidence interval = 1.74‐2.56). Similar results were found for substance use disorders ( P < .01). CONCLUSION: ACEs are linked to an increased risk for past‐year psychiatric and substance use disorders in older adults. ACEs may have long‐term effects on older adults’ mental well‐being. Although further research is needed, preventing ACEs may lead to large improvements in public mental health that persist well into older age. J Am Geriatr Soc 67:2085–2093, 2019

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1111/jgs.16032

Cites

40 of 40 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Rhee, T. G., Barry, L. C., Kuchel, G. A., Steffens, D. C., & Wilkinson, S. T.
Affiliations
  • University of Connecticut (US)
  • Yale University (US)
Corresponding author
Rhee, Taeho Greg
Venue
Journal of the American Geriatrics Society
Publisher
Wiley
Published
2019-06-17
Volume
67
Issue
10
Pages
2085-2093
ISSN
  • 0002-8614 (ISSN-L)
  • 1532-5415
OpenAlex
W2951741483
Cited by
70
References
40
Citations by year
2026: 3 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 14 · 2021: 12 · 2020: 11
FWCI
10.80
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Journal of the American Geriatrics Society (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
Funders
  • Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (K12HS023000)
  • National Institute on Aging (T32AG019134)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child Abuse and Trauma
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Research
  • Social Sciences › Safety Research › Child Welfare and Adoption
Keywords
adverse childhood experiences, older adults, mental illness, substance use disorders, alcoholism, major depressive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, parental psychopathology, childhood abuse, mental health in aging
MeSH terms
Adverse Childhood Experiences, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Mental Disorders, Chronic Disease, Cross-Sectional Studies, Female, Health Surveys, Humans, Male, Suicide, Attempted, United States, Substance-Related Disorders, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review