By YC Cozier, et al., Healio, April 6, 2020
Black women who experience sexual and physical abuse during childhood are at an increased risk for developing systemic lupus erythematosus as an adult, according to data published in Arthritis Care & Research.
“Psychosocial stress such as PTSD has been shown to influence autoimmune diseases, including systemic lupus erythematosus, likely through the dysregulation of the adaptive stress response and inflammatory processes,” Yvette C. Cozier, DSc, MPH, of Boston University, told Healio Rheumatology. “Adverse childhood experiences have been associated with an increased risk for overall poor health in adulthood. Children who experience victimization show elevated levels of inflammatory biomarkers several decades later, as well as autoimmune diseases in adulthood, including lupus.”
To analyze the link between childhood physical and sexual abuse and SLE among black women, Cozier and colleagues studied data from the Black Women’s Health Study, which in 1995 enrolled 64,500 participants in the continental United States aged 21-69 years. The 2005 follow-up questionnaire, which contained items on abuse, was completed by 43,179 women in the study. Cozier and colleagues excluded 483 women who reported SLE prior to 1995, as well as another 6,544 women with missing information. The researchers’ final analysis included the remaining 36,152 participants.
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