Correlations of heavy alcohol consumption with negative childhood experiences

Abstract

Introduction: A considerable proportion of the Hungarian population suffers from alcohol-use disorders. Additionally, studies also reflect on the various long-term negative effects of alcohol consumption and alcohol use disorders, constituting a significant public health issue. At the same time, Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) as well are proven to have long-term effects on physical- and mental health and may induce several negative consequences that might appear later in life. A great number of studies demonstrated that ACEs are associated with a higher risk for major depression, personality disorders, suicide, and addictions, including drug addiction and alcoholism. This study aims to further investigate the relationship between ACEs and alcohol consumption in the Hungarian population.

Methods: The study is based on data from 644 participants with a mean age of 40 years (SD = 14.6). The sample was heterogenous and composed of patients suffering from liver damage due to alcohol or drug use, patients of family doctor services, job seekers, university students, homeless adults and patints who were infected in the adulthood by blood transfusion. The ACEs were examined with the extended questionnaire of the WHO, ACE-IQ, which measures 13 ACE categories. Out of the two possible ways of interpretation this study uses the stricter method, which only considers the more severe ACEs. Alcohol consumption was measured via self-report questions designed specifically for this study. For the analyses, Mann-Whitney test, Kruskal-Wallis test, and ordinal logistic regression were used.

Results: A significant majority of the participants had at least one adverse childhood experience (85.9%). A great number of ACEs were reported by those, who considered themselves as addicts, and by those, who say they had a period in life when they consumed a large quantity of alcohol on a regular basis. Looking into different categories of ACEs, five showed a significant association with participants having had a period in life of heavy drinking: physical abuse, sexual abuse, addict in the household, emotional neglect and collective abuse.

Conclusion: These results show that the more ACEs a person had, the higher their risk of an alcohol-use disorder or heavy drinking were in adulthood. Certain categories of ACEs increased this risk further. Childhood experiences can carry on and yield effects even in adulthood, therefore the need to prevent ACEs and provide support once they have happened is further supported.