Evaluation of the Relationship Between Childhood Maltreatments and Cancer Using the Case-Control Research Method

Abstract

Objective: Childhood mental traumas are one of the most frequent and an important social environment factors that negatively affect the growth and development of children. The aim of this study is to examine the relation between childhood maltreatments and cancer. Material and Methods: In this case-control study, the sample of the study consists of 63 adult patients with cancer were treated at the hospital and 89 adults who were admitted to the same hospital with similar gender, education, and economic status and were not diagnosed with cancer. Socio-demographic information form and Childhood Trauma Questionnaire Short Form were used in data collection. In the analysis of normally distributed data, t-test, analysis of variance, and odds ratio (OR), which is a measure of effect size, were used. Results: Approximately 51% of the participants were female and 49% were male. Gender, income, education and age distribution were similar in the case-control groups (p>0.05). Emotional abuse, emotional neglect, and physical neglect were associated with having cancer (respectively OR=2.48, 1.86, 3.42), all mentioned maltreatment types were increased odds of having cancer. Physical abuse and sexual abuse mean scores did not differ significantly between the case-control groups (p>0.05). The rate of receiving psychological support was 12.7%. Conclusion: The results of the study showed that the importance of individual and community-based studies to prevent childhood maltreatment, development of early warning systems, and the need for trauma-sensitive approaches in the cancer treatment process. Copyright © 2023 by Türkiye Klinikleri. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).