Parent injury admission as a potential adverse childhood experience: A 25 US Level I Trauma center investigation

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), such as violence exposure, are linked with numerous long-term health consequences. Adult firearm and other injury survivors presenting to level I trauma centers frequently report having youth family members exposed to firearm violence and other traumatic life events. Few investigations have examined the demographic and familial characteristics, or cumulative trauma burden of exposed family members.

The investigation was a secondary analysis of data collected as part of a 25-site national US level I trauma center randomized clinical trial (N = 635). Baseline characteristics of firearm injury survivors (n = 128) versus all other injury survivors (n = 507) were compared, including number of children, pre-injury trauma history, and post-admission recurrent traumatic and stressful life events. Analyses were conducted on baseline characteristics of firearm injury survivors, including trauma history, and compared to non-firearm injury survivors. For injury survivors with children, mixed model regression was used to assess whether firearm injury was independently associated with an increased risk of childhood injury leading to hospitalization over the course of the year after the index parental injury admission.

There were few demographic and clinical differences between firearm and non-firearm injury survivors. Approximately 70% of adult injury survivors had at least one child. Over 10% of adult injury survivors had a child hospitalized in the year after the index admission; firearm injury survivors were no more likely than all other injury survivors to have a child hospitalized after the index admission. For injury survivors with children, mixed model regression analyses revealed a significant association between pre-injury childhood exposure to life-threating illness/injury and child injury hospitalization in the year after the index parental injury admission (Relative Risk = 1.92, 95% Confidence Interval = 1.08, 3.42).

Over 10% of adult injury survivors reported that their children were hospitalized for an injury in the year after an index injury admission. Prehospital childhood illness or injury admission was significantly associated with childhood injury hospitalization in the year after parental injury. Trauma centers could be harnessed as a public health point-of-contact for screening, intervention, and referral of ACEs, such as childhood injury.