Minnesota ACE survey finds more than half of state experienced one or more types of childhood adversity

Jane Stevens 1/28/1312:00 PM

Minnesota released the findings of a state-wide ACE survey today. The results echo the CDC's groundbreaking ACE Study. A telephone survey of 13,520 people in 2011 revealed that 55% had one or more types of adverse childhood experience and, of those, more than half had experienced two or more.

Participants in the survey were asked whether they had experienced one or more of the following: loss of a parent, watching a mother being abused, a family member in prison, a parent who's an alcoholic or addicted to some other drug, a parent who's diagnosed with depression or other mental illness; verbal, sexual and/or physical abuse.

The most common were:

Verbal abuse -- 28 percent
Alcoholic or substance-abusing parent -- 24 percent
Mental illness -- 17 percent
Physical abuse -- 16 percent

According to a media release issued by the Minnesota Department of Health:

Minnesota's results are consistent with those found by the initial ACE study and in other states. First, ACEs are common; second, ACEs frequently occur together, and third, higher ACE scores put a person more at risk for poorer health and well-being outcomes as an adult. For example, Minnesotans with more ACEs were more likely to rate their health as fair or poor, to have been diagnosed with depression or anxiety, to report smoking and chronic drinking, to have been diagnosed with asthma, and to be obese. In addition, ACEs are more common among Minnesotans who did not graduate from high school, who were unmarried, who rented rather than owned their own home, who were unemployed, or who worried about paying their mortgage or rent or about buying nutritious food.

The media release quoted Dr. Ed Ehlinger, Minnesota Commissioner of Health as saying: "The significance of this study is that it shows that these experiences, which can significantly affect the health and well-being of adults decades later, are much more common in Minnesota than one might expect.

More details of the survey are being discussed today at a forum in Saint Paul. Minnesota is one of 18 U.S. states that have completed an ACE survey, according to Dr. Robert Anda, one of the co-principle investigators of the CDC's ACE Study. Not all states have analyzed the data yet.