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This page is an AI-assisted Turkish summary of the study presented at the 26th World Congress of Psychiatry. The study belongs to the presenting authors; please refer to the original source when citing it.

SO300

The association between childhood sexual abuse and loneliness in adulthood in the United States

ASSOCIATION OF CHILDHOOD SEXUAL ABUSE WITH ADULT LONELINESS IN THE UNITED STATES

Childhood sexual abuse shows a strong, graded (dose–response) association with loneliness in adulthood.

The aim was to examine whether a history of childhood sexual abuse is associated with loneliness in adulthood in a graded dose–response pattern and whether this association varies by sex, race or ethnicity, and age. A cross-sectional analysis was conducted using nationally representative data from the 2023–2024 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), with a sample of 53,444 adults (mean age, 56.8 years; 55.1% women). Exposure was self-reported through the adverse childhood experiences module and classified as never, once, or more than once; the outcome variable was loneliness frequency. The analysis used survey-weighted multinomial logistic regression, complex survey weights, and inverse probability weighting, with tests for effect modification by sex, race or ethnicity, and age. The probability of never feeling lonely decreased from 40.9% among those reporting no abuse to 23.1% among those reporting repeated abuse; the probability of feeling lonely “most of the time” increased from 3.3% (7.5% with a single exposure) to 8.9%, and the probability of “always” feeling lonely increased from 2.1% (3.9% with a single exposure) to 5.3%. Compared with no abuse, repeated abuse was associated with an adjusted odds ratio of 4.48 for always feeling lonely (95% CI, 3.05 to 5.91; P<0.001), indicating approximately 4.5-fold higher odds. For any abuse, the absolute risk difference in loneliness was calculated as 18.1 percentage points, the number needed to harm as 6, and the population attributable fraction as 7.5% (95% CI, 6.4 to 8.5), corresponding to approximately 6.2 million adult cases of loneliness. The association was consistent across demographic groups (P for interaction by sex=0.03), and the findings support trauma-informed screening and early psychosocial support in light of the enduring social consequences of early-life trauma. Note: The abstract text in the conference system reports a sample of 54,468 individuals and somewhat different probability estimates; the data presented in the poster were used here.

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