London: Adverse events and trauma
experienced during childhood increase the risk of developing
lung cancer in later life, according to a new study.
Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention in Atlanta claimed that children who go through
traumatic experience are like to face a terrible burden of
stressors.
These stressors are associated with harmful behaviors,
such as smoking, that may lead to the development of diseases
like lung cancer and perhaps death at younger ages, they said
in their research published in the BMC Public Health journal.
"Adverse childhood experiences were associated with an
increased risk of lung cancer, particularly premature death
from lung cancer. Although smoking behaviors, including early
smoking initiation and heavy smoking, account for the greater
part of this risk, other mechanisms or path physiologic
pathways may be involved," said David Brown who led the study.
"Compared to those who claimed no childhood trauma,
people who experienced six or more traumas were about three
times more likely to have lung cancer, identified either
through hospitalization records or mortality records," he
said.
"Of the people who developed, or died of, lung cancer,
those with six or more adverse events in childhood were
roughly 13 years younger at presentation than those with none.
"People who had experienced more adverse events in
childhood showed more smoking behaviors," he added.
The central message of the study, which analyzed the
effects of childhood abuse (emotional, physical, sexual), is
that our children can become victim of terrible stressors that
lead to their premature death.
The researchers suggested to adopt new methods that can
help reduce the burden of traumatic childhood experiences.
"Reducing the burden of adverse childhood experiences
should therefore be considered in health and social programmes
as a means of primary prevention of lung cancer and other
smoking-related diseases," they wrote in their paper.
PTI