The long-term health effects of physical, sexual, and emotional
abuse during childhood were studied in a sample of 668 middle class
females in a gynecologic practice who responded to a
self-administered, anonymous questionnaire covering demographic
information, family history, physical and psychological health, as
well as stressful events and abusive experiences as a child. Half
(53%) of the sample reported childhood abuse, with 28.9% recounting
exposure to one type of abuse, 18.7% to two types of abuse, and 5.4%
to all three types of abuse. In comparison to women not abused during
childhood, the abused reported significantly more hospitalizations for
illnesses, a greater number of physical and psychological problems,
and lower ratings of their overall health. The greater the number of
childhood abuses, the poorer one's adult health and the more likely
one was to have experienced abuse as an adult. Thus, in addition to
the deleterious psychological consequences of abuse described in the
literature, physical health also appears to be adversely affected in
women abused as children.