Risk Factors for Disease Risk Factors and Attributable Risk Calculations: Are There Mathematical Limits?

Abstract

The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study, a collaborative effort between Kaiser Permanente (San Diego, CA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Atlanta, GA), was designed to examine the long-term relationship between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and a variety of health behaviors and outcomes in adulthood [1]. ACEs include childhood emotional, physical, or sexual abuse and household dysfunction during childhood. The ACE Study, based on chronic disease prevention and control models, proposes that ACEs influence social, emotional, and cognitive impairments which in turn increase the probability of adopting health risk behaviors that have been documented to influence the subsequent development of disease, disability, social problems, and ultimately premature death. We use the ACE pyramid to depict this concept (see www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/ace/pyramid.htm).