Abstract
Objective Cumulative evidence indicates that childhood maltreatment is linked to self-reported asthma and COPD. However, the relationship between childhood maltreatment and objective measures of lung function as determined by spirometry has not yet been assessed.
Methods Medical histories and spirometric lung function were taken in 1386 adults from the general population. Participants completed the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire for the assessment of emotional, physical and sexual abuse as well as emotional and physical neglect.
Results 25.3% of the participants reported at least one type of childhood maltreatment. Among them, use of medication for obstructive airway diseases as well as typical signs and symptoms of airflow limitation were significantly more frequent than in the group without exposure to childhood maltreatment. Although participants with childhood maltreatment had numerically lower values for forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1), forced vital capacity (FVC) and peak expiratory flow than those without, these differences were nonsignificant when accounting for relevant covariates such as age, sex, height and smoking. Likewise, there were no differences in the FEV1/FVC ratio nor in the frequency of airflow limitation regardless of its definition. No specific type of childhood maltreatment was related to spirometrically determined parameters of lung function.
Conclusions Our findings call into question the association of childhood maltreatment with obstructive lung diseases as indicated by prior research relying on self-reported diagnoses. We consider several explanations for these discrepancies.
Abstract
This general population study calls into question the well-documented link between childhood maltreatment and obstructive pulmonary diseases by indicating that spirometrically assessed lung function is not related to any type of childhood abuse or neglect https://bit.ly/2GVinFt
Footnotes
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Conflict of interest: C. Spitzer has nothing to disclose.
Conflict of interest: R. Ewert reports lecture fees from Actelion Germany, Janssen Germany, OMT, AstraZeneca, Bayer Vital, GSK, Novartis and Boehringer Ingelheimm, and fees for participation on advisory board from Actelion, GS and Novartis.
Conflict of interest: H. Völzke has nothing to disclose.
Conflict of interest: S. Frenzel has nothing to disclose.
Conflict of interest: S.B. Felix has nothing to disclose.
Conflict of interest: L. Lübke has nothing to disclose.
Conflict of interest: H.J. Grabe reports research grants, travel grants and fees for lectures from Fresenius Medical Care, Neuraxpharm, Servier and Janssen Cilag, grants from German Research Foundation (DFG), German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), DAMP Foundation, EU Joint Program Neurodegenerative Disorders (JPND) and European Social Fund (ESF), outside the submitted work.
Support statement: The work is part of the Community Medicine Research net (CMR) of the University of Greifswald, Germany, which is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (grant numbers ZZ9603, 01ZZ0103, 01ZZ0403), Competence Network Asthma/COPD (FKZ 01GI0881-0888), the Ministry of Cultural Affairs as well as the Social Ministry of the Federal State of Mecklenburg-West Pomerania. The CMR encompasses several research projects which are sharing data of the population-based Study of Health in Pomerania (SHIP; http://ship.community-medicine.de).
- Received July 23, 2020.
- Accepted October 7, 2020.
- Copyright ©ERS 2021