Associations among childhood abuse experience and Interleukin-6 in middle school students / 中国学校卫生

ABSTRACT

Objective@#The present study aimed to determine the prevalence of childhood abuse and examined its correlation with inflammatory factor IL-6 level in middle schools students.@*Methods@#A total of 911 junior and high school students from a middle school in Shenyang were enrolled in this study to investigate the experience of childhood abuse and its association with IL-6 level in fasting blood samples in December 2017.@*Results@#The prevalence of childhood maltreatment was 21.0%, the prevalence of physical, emotional and sexual abuse was 21.8%, 20.3% and 9.5%, respectively. Physical abuse, emotional abuse and total abuse were associated with high levels of IL-6 in junior high school boys, χ2 values were 3.88, 6.78, and 9.10, respectively (P<0.05). There was no significant correlation between abuse experiences with IL-6 levels among junior high school girls and senior high school students. Regression analysis showed that physical abuse, emotional abuse and total abuse were positively associated with IL-6 concentration among junior high school boys(OR=2.23, 3.49, 1.58, P<0.05).@*Conclusion@#Physical and emotional abuse in childhood associates with the increase of IL-6 level among junior school boys. Abnormal inflammatory factor level might be potential mechanism linking childhood abuse with adverse health outcomes.