Physical or emotional abuse and neglect in childhood increase a child's risk of experiencing a series of health problems in adulthood, a new study says.
Dr. Rosana Norman and colleagues, including researchers from the World Health Organization, reviewed 124 previous studies from different parts of the world that looked at the consequences of childhood abuse and neglect.
A significant number of studies were from Western Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand. At the end of the analysis, researchers found that emotional abuse in childhood increased the risk of depression three-fold in adulthood; while physical abuse and neglect were associated with a two-fold risk.
Apart from that, they also found childhood abuse increased the risks of anxiety disorders, drug abuse, suicidal behavior and risky sexual behavior in adulthood.
"The awareness of the serious long-term consequences of child maltreatment should encourage better identification of those at risk and the development of effective interventions to protect children from violence," Dr. Norman, from the University of Queensland's School of Population Health and Children's Medical Research Institute, said.
Findings of the study have been published in PLOS MEDICINE. Contradictory to the reports from child protective agencies across U.S., a study published Oct.1 in Pediatrics found child abuse -physical, sexual, emotional maltreatment or neglect, still prevalent in the country and gone up in the recent past.
Nearly 6 million children are abused and five children die per day across the country, according to National Child Abuse Statistics. A CDC report found state and local agencies receiving more than 3 million reports of child maltreatment each year, which means nearly 6 cases every minute.
A study published in the journal Pediatrics, July, found a large number of children being hospitalized due to serious physical abuse in the past ten years, an impact of the economic recession and housing crisis in the United States.
