What does the ACE score mean?

Negative childhood experiences can predispose a person to health problems, (both mental and physical) in his or her senior years. A major American Project on adverse childhood experiences shows that childhood events have a direct effect on the status of adult health.

According to Vincent J. Felitti M.D., traumatic emotional experiences in childhood can trigger serious health problems even 50 years later. Not only does this suggest that memories of early events do not disappear over time, but their negative emotional impact is lasting and cumulative.

The Adverse Childhood Experiences Study (ACE) began from an observation made in an obesity treatment program: a correlation between childhood sexual abuse and the onset of obesity.

Researchers found that for many patients, obesity itself is not a problem; they see it as a form of "protective solution" to unwanted sexual encounters. An example is a young woman who developed obesity a year after she was raped; the weight gain was her solution to unwanted sexual attention.

Using this correlation between trauma and obesity, researchers tabulated an ACE score based on several categories of childhood abuse and household dysfunction.

Find out what this ACE score means here.