Adverse childhood experiences or adverse childhood socioeconomic conditions?
Authors: David C Taylor-Robinson, Viviane S Straatmann, Margaret Whitehead
Journal: The Lancet Public Health (2018)

If a child lives with an adult who has a mental health disorder or an alcohol-related illness, how does that affect the risk of emergency hospital admission for that child? In The Lancet Public Health, Shantini Paranjothy and colleagues1Paranjothy S Evans A Bandyopadhyay A et al.Risk of emergency hospital admissions associated with mental disorders and alcohol misuse in the household: an electronic birth cohort study.Lancet Public Health. 2018; (published online May 15.)http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S2468-2667(18)30069-0PubMed Google Scholar use the excellent record linkage system established in Wales to address this question, showing that these exposures independently increase the risk of childhood admission due to all causes, external causes and injury, and victimisation. A great strength of this study is the use of population data linkage across all children in Wales, with a research platform that is helping to address fundamental questions in child health. The study's findings, however, illustrate wider issues in the debate about policy implications of so-called adverse childhood experiences, which are worthy of closer examination. The authors frame their analysis in the context of the adverse childhood experiences agenda, suggesting that children living in families with mental disorders and alcohol misuse should be identified and appropriately supported, but is this interpretation of the data the most appropriate for policy? Although it is clear from the study of Paranjothy and colleagues that family alcohol misuse and mental health problems are associated with worse outcomes for children in those families, the question remains as to the most appropriate public health response.2Finkelhor D Screening for adverse childhood experiences (ACEs): cautions and suggestions.Child Abuse Negl. 2017; (published online Aug 4.)DOI:10.1016/j.chiabu.2017.07.016Crossref Scopus (258) Google Scholar There is interest in identifying populations of children at risk of poor health outcomes to inform resource allocation and service planning,3Chittleborough CR Searle AK Smithers LG Brinkman S Lynch JW How well can poor child development be predicted from early life characteristics?: a whole-of-population data linkage study.Early Child Res Q. 2016; 35: 19-30Crossref Scopus (24) Google Scholar and there are moves to screen children for adverse childhood experiences so that they can be referred to services in the hope that outcomes can be improved.2Finkelhor D Screening for adverse childhood experiences (ACEs): cautions and suggestions.Child Abuse Negl. 2017; (published online Aug 4.)DOI:10.1016/j.chiabu.2017.07.016Crossref Scopus (258) Google Scholar But if the purpose of the exercise is to identify children at risk of poor outcomes who might benefit from intervention, the study's findings suggest that childhood socioeconomic conditions and factors such as maternal smoking in pregnancy might be more useful as predictors. Paranjothy and colleagues show that mental health problems and alcohol misuse in families are associated with increased risk of hospital admissions for the children, but there is less focus on other striking findings: that the effects are largest in deprived areas and in children whose mothers smoked during pregnancy. The main results show a 17% increase in the risk of all cause admission, 14% for injuries, and 55% for childhood victimisation for children living with families with parental mental disorders. There are similar associations for living with a household member who had had an alcohol-related hospital admission. There was no association between household alcohol misuse and all-cause admissions in children. The researchers go on to assess how the risk of admissions in children increases with combinations of each exposure (household mental disorder and alcohol misuse) with measures of socioeconomic conditions, family structure, and parental behaviour. For example, children born in the most disadvantaged areas to mothers aged younger than 18 years who smoked during pregnancy, living in a household where there is evidence of household mental disorder and alcohol misuse have a hazard ratio of 20 for victimisation-related hospital admissions, compared with the reference group of low risk children. This finding shows the importance of adverse socioeconomic conditions, raising a new set of policy implications, and has relevance for the broader debate on adverse childhood experiences. The concept of adverse childhood experiences has considerably influenced policy,4Public Health WalesAdverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs).http://www.wales.nhs.uk/sitesplus/888/page/88524Date accessed: April 28, 2018Google Scholar but their definition is varied and has gradually expanded, increasingly to the detriment of the concept's utility.5Hughes K Bellis MA Hardcastle KA et al.The effect of multiple adverse childhood experiences on health: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Lancet Public Health. 2017; 2: e356-e366Summary Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (1762) Google Scholar The papers5Hughes K Bellis MA Hardcastle KA et al.The effect of multiple adverse childhood experiences on health: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Lancet Public Health. 2017; 2: e356-e366Summary Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (1762) Google Scholar, 6Felitti VJ Anda RF Nordenberg D et al.Relationship of childhood abuse and household dysfunction to many of the leading causes of death in adults. The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study.Am J Prev Med. 1998; 14: 245-258Summary Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (9643) Google Scholar that introduced the term focussed on the effect of experiences of trauma and abuse in children, either direct or indirect. These experiences included toxic exposures such as childhood psychological, physical, or sexual abuse7Anda RF Felitti VJ Bremner JD et al.The enduring effects of abuse and related adverse experiences in childhood.Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci. 2006; 256: 174-186Crossref PubMed Scopus (2635) Google Scholar; domestic abuse and violence against the child's mother; and living with household members who had substance misuse disorders, were mentally ill or suicidal, or had been imprisoned in the past. The definition of adverse childhood experiences has since expanded to include in some analyses measures such as family instability and parental separation, low parental education, child poverty, parental unemployment, and lone parenthood.5Hughes K Bellis MA Hardcastle KA et al.The effect of multiple adverse childhood experiences on health: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Lancet Public Health. 2017; 2: e356-e366Summary Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (1762) Google Scholar This development has led to an unhelpful conflation of directly harmful risk factors, such as abuse, and measures of family structure and childhood socioeconomic conditions, which might be associated with other risk factors for poor health. Lumping these concepts together as adverse childhood experiences is conceptually muddled, potentially stigmatising, and might lead to the importance of socioeconomic conditions being overlooked. Our contention is that efforts to improve child health outcomes should focus on reducing modifiable socioeconomic inequalities, as well as early identification and appropriate intervention for children that have had adverse childhood experiences, which will vary widely depending on the specific exposure.2Finkelhor D Screening for adverse childhood experiences (ACEs): cautions and suggestions.Child Abuse Negl. 2017; (published online Aug 4.)DOI:10.1016/j.chiabu.2017.07.016Crossref Scopus (258) Google Scholar, 8Lanier P Maguire-Jack K Lombardi B Frey J Rose RA Adverse Childhood Experiences and child health outcomes: comparing cumulative risk and latent class approaches.Matern Child Health J. 2018; 22: 288-297Crossref PubMed Scopus (113) Google Scholar The concept of adverse childhood experiences has been a useful starting point for debates about investing in children's health, but it should not obscure the overarching idea of important, modifiable, determinants of child health.9Wickham S Anwar E Barr B Law C Taylor-Robinson D Poverty and child health in the UK: using evidence for action.Arch Child. 2016; 101: 759-766Crossref PubMed Scopus (71) Google Scholar, 10Metzler M Merrick M Klevens J Ports K Ford D Adverse childhood experiences and life opportunities: Shifting the narrative.Child Youth Serv Rev. 2017; 72: 141-149Crossref Scopus (321) Google Scholar DCT-R is funded by the MRC on a Clinician Scientist Fellowship (MR/P008577/1). Risk of emergency hospital admission in children associated with mental disorders and alcohol misuse in the household: an electronic birth cohort studyThe increased risk of emergency admissions in children associated with mental disorders and alcohol misuse in the household supports the need for policy measures to provide support to families that are affected. Full-Text PDF Open Access