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Cancer Causes & Control
Published in: Cancer Causes & Control 11/2010

01-11-2010 | Original paper

The mediating effect of childhood abuse in sexual orientation disparities in tobacco and alcohol use during adolescence: results from the Nurses’ Health Study II

Authors: Hee-Jin Jun, S. Bryn Austin, Sarah A. Wylie, Heather L. Corliss, Benita Jackson, Donna Spiegelman, Mathew J. Pazaris, Rosalind J. Wright

Published in: Cancer Causes & Control | Issue 11/2010

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Abstract

Objective

To examine the mediating effect of childhood abuse on sexual orientation disparities in tobacco and alcohol use during adolescence.

Methods

We carried out analyses with data from over 62,000 women in the ongoing Nurses’ Health Study II cohort who provided information on sexual orientation, childhood abuse occurring by age 11, and tobacco and alcohol use in adolescence. We used multivariate regression analyses, controlling for confounders, to estimate the mediating effect of childhood abuse on the association between sexual orientation and tobacco and alcohol use in adolescence.

Results

Lesbian and bisexual orientation and childhood abuse were positively associated with greater risk of tobacco and alcohol use during adolescence. For lesbians, the estimated proportion of excess tobacco and alcohol use in adolescence relative to use among heterosexual women that was mediated by abuse in childhood ranged from 7 to 18%; for bisexual women, the estimated proportion of excess use mediated by abuse ranged from 6 to 13%.

Conclusions

Elevated childhood abuse in lesbian and bisexual women partially mediated excess tobacco and alcohol use in adolescence relative to heterosexual women. Interventions to prevent child abuse may reduce sexual orientation disparities in some of the leading causes of cancer in women.
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Metadata
Title
The mediating effect of childhood abuse in sexual orientation disparities in tobacco and alcohol use during adolescence: results from the Nurses’ Health Study II
Authors
Hee-Jin Jun
S. Bryn Austin
Sarah A. Wylie
Heather L. Corliss
Benita Jackson
Donna Spiegelman
Mathew J. Pazaris
Rosalind J. Wright
Publication date
01-11-2010
Publisher
Springer Netherlands
Published in
Cancer Causes & Control / Issue 11/2010
Print ISSN: 0957-5243
Electronic ISSN: 1573-7225
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-010-9609-3

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