Health-related Quality of Life in Adults who Experienced Maltreatment during Childhood

Objective: The objective of this study was to assess the marginal difference in preference-based health-related quality of life (HRQoL) for adults reporting maltreatment as a child, compared to adults reporting no maltreatment. Methods: Using data collected from adults self-reporting about adverse childhood experiences and current health status, we matched a group of adults reporting child maltreatment (CM) to a group of adults reporting no CM. Propensity score methods were used to compare cases to controls. Utilities were imputed from the SF-36 as the HRQoL measure, using the SF-6D preference-based scoring algorithm. Results: N=2,812 self identified cases of CM were compared to N=3,356 controls. Overall covariate imbalance within each of the 25 strata was insignificant. The combined strata-level effects of CM on SF-6D utility was a reduction of 0.028 per year (95% CI, 0.022 to 0.034; p<0.001). All utility losses for CM versus no CM by age group were significantly different: age 18-39: 0.042; age 40-49: 0.038; age 50-59: 0.023; age 60-69: 0.016; age 70+: 0.025. Conclusions: Persons experiencing maltreatment during childhood have significant and sustained losses in preference-based health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in adulthood, as measured by utilities, relative to persons not experiencing maltreatment during childhood.