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339288
Epidemiology of Adverse Childhood Experiences among New York City Children


Tuesday, November 3, 2015 : 4:48 p.m. - 5:06 p.m.

Katharine McVeigh, PhD, MPH, Division of Family and Child Health, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Long Island City, NY
Tammie Kwong, MPH, Touro School of Osteopathic Medicine, New York, NY
Carrie Mills, MPH, Division of Mental Hygiene, NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Queens, NY
Abigail M. Jewkes, PhD, Division of Family and Child Health, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Long Island City, NY
Audio (mp3) recording Recorded Presentation (mp4)
Background: Adverse childhood experiences (ACE) have been associated with a range of short- and long-term poor outcomes, including social/emotional, learning, behavior, and chronic health problems. Statewide data are available for New York State, but local estimates are needed to inform program and policy. The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has recently completed data collection for a survey on children’s health, emotional wellness and development. We use these surveillance data to characterize the burden of adverse childhood experiences in New York City.

Methods:  Preliminary unweighted data from a 2015 random-digit-dialed survey of 3,051 New York City (NYC) children ages 0-12 were analyzed to describe the distribution of ACE by age, sex, race, parental education, and household income. Analyses with weighted data and comparisons to statewide results are forthcoming.

Results: Of the 2290 children with responses to one or more item in the ACE scale, 960(41.9%) were exposed to one or more adverse event. Of those, 207 (9.0%) were exposed to 2 events, 76 (3.3%) were exposed to 3 events, and 48 (2.1%) to 4 or more events. The most commonly experienced events included parental divorce (340, 14.2%), extreme financial hardship (161, 6.8%), experiencing violence or witnessing violence in the neighborhood (118, 5.0%) or witnessing adult interpersonal violence at home (116, 4.9%). The frequency of adverse events increased with age, was inversely associated with parental education and family income, and did not vary by the child’s sex.

Conclusion: The prevalence of adverse childhood experiences among New York City children present a large burden in this population. Violence is of particular concern, representing more than 20% of the events cited, and affecting 8.2% of all New York City children. More evidence-based Interventions to reduce NYC children’s exposure to interpersonal and neighborhood violence are needed to reduce this burden.

Learning Areas:

Epidemiology
Public health or related research

Learning Objectives:
Describe the burden of adverse childhood experiences among New York City children by sociodemographic characteristics including child race, age group, sex, parental education and household income. Identify the adverse events that occur most frequently, and describe the interactions between the type of event and child charcterisitics

Keyword(s): Child Health, Data Collection and Surveillance

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have analyzed DOHMH survey data since 2002 including data pertaining to mental health, socioeconomic risk factors and child health and development
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

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