Associations between child maltreatment, cigarette smoking, and nicotine dependence in young adults with a history of regular smoking

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Alison Cammack, Rollins School of Public Health; Regine Haardoerfer, Emory University; Shakira Suglia, Emory University
• Language: English
• Date: 2019-12-01
• Publisher: Emory University Libraries
• Publication Version: Author Accepted Manuscript (After Peer Review)
• Copyright Statement: 2019
• License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.annepidem.2019.10.003
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Annals of Epidemiology
• Volume: 40
• Start Page: 13
• End Page: 20.e4
• Grant/Funding Information: This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health, United States [grant R01HL125761-04S1].; This research uses data from Add Health, a program project directed by Kathleen Mullan Harris and designed by J. Richard Udry, Peter S. Bearman, and Kathleen Mullan Harris at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and funded by grant P01-HD31921 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, United States, with cooperative funding from 23 other federal agencies and foundations
• Keywords: Male; Tobacco Use Disorder; Risk Factors; Smoking; Substance use; Adult; Child Abuse; Child; Behavior, Addictive; Child maltreatment; Young Adult; Child abuse; Addiction; Adult Survivors of Child Abuse; Cigarette Smoking; Humans; Female; Longitudinal Studies; Child neglect; Adolescent
• Research Categories: Health Sciences, Public Health

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether childhood maltreatment is associated with smoking behaviors and lifetime nicotine dependence and if associations are moderated by sex. We examined these associations among individuals who ever reported being regular smokers. Methods: Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, we examined relationships between retrospectively self-reported child maltreatment (parent/caregiver-perpetrated emotional, physical, sexual abuse, and neglect; and non-parent/caregiver-perpetrated sexual abuse) and self-reported smoking behaviors among individuals with a history of regular smoking. Outcomes were any current smoking in early adulthood (mean age = 28 years), current smoking in adolescent study waves only, adulthood only, and adolescence and adulthood (n = 3581); and lifetime history of nicotine dependence (n = 3594) per the Fagerstrom scale. Results: Poly-maltreatment (aRR for 2+ vs. 0 exposures = 1.20, 95% CI: 1.08, 1.34) was associated with lifetime nicotine dependence; associations between nicotine dependence and neglect and non-parent/caregiver sexual abuse by force were only present in women. Neglect and non-parent/caregiver sexual abuse by nonphysical threat were associated with continued smoking, and an association between non-parent/caregiver sexual abuse by physical force and continued smoking was also noted in women only. Women who experienced poly-maltreatment were less likely to report current smoking in adolescence but not adulthood. Conclusions: These data suggest in a nationally representative sample of ever regular smokers, child maltreatment is associated with outcomes that suggest an inability to quit smoking and some associations may vary by sex.