Social Determinants of Health and Health-Care Solutions

In 2001, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Kaiser Permanente published a study on how adverse childhood experiences affected the health of adults.1 Abuse of all kinds and observing violence in childhood were associated with higher levels of smoking, alcohol abuse, depression, and poorer health in adulthood. In other words, battered children become battered adults.2,3 The world batters everyone in many ways, but some people are battered far worse than others. Part of our role as public health professionals is to help neutralize this battering.