Table 4 Association between presence of different childhood trauma types and ghrelin serum levels in males (n = 632) and females (n = 454).

From: Childhood sexual abuse is associated with higher total ghrelin serum levels in adulthood: results from a large, population-based study

Trauma type

n

Odds ratio [95% CI] (p value)

Model 1

Model 2

Males (n = 632)

Any childhood trauma

192

0.976 [0.918–1.037] (p = 0.427)

0.974 [0.915–1.037] (p = 0.405)

Severe emotional neglect

47

0.978 [0.879–1.089] (p = 0.689)

0.965 [0.868–1.072] (p = 0.507)

Physical abuse

52

0.941 [0.849–1.042] (p = 0.241)

0.931 [0.843–1.029] (p = 0.164)

Emotional abuse

35

0.938 [0.830–1.060] (p = 0.307)

0.930 [0.825–1.049] (p = 0.240)

Sexual abuse

15

1.179 [0.981–1.417] (p = 0.079+)

1.138 [0.949–1.364] (p = 0.162)

Physical neglect

121

0.992 [0.924–1.065] (p = 0.823)

1.007 [0.936–1.083] (p = 0.859)

Females (n = 454)

Any childhood trauma

153

1.034 [0.947–1.130] (p = 0.458)

1.019 [0.935–1.112] (p = 0.665)

Severe emotional neglect

34

1.232 [1.052–1.442] (p = 0.009**)

1.204 [1.032–1.405] (p = 0.018*)

Physical abuse

39

1.043 [0.899–1.211] (p = 0.578)

1.047 [0.904–1.212] (p = 0.538)

Emotional abuse

42

1.011 [0.875–1.168] (p = 0.883)

1.013 [0.876–1.171] (p = 0.861)

Sexual abuse

45

1.099 [0.956–1.264] (p = 0.184)

1.076 [0.941–1.231] (p = 0.285)

Physical neglect

82

1.019 [0.914–1.136] (p = 0.737)

1.012 [0.907–1.128] (p = 0.836)

  1. Significant findings were marked in bold. All statistical models were generalized linear models with gamma distribution and log-link function for the examination of the association of presence of a childhood trauma and different types of childhood trauma (emotional neglect, physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, physical neglect; reference category: no) and ghrelin serum levels (as dependent variable). Model 1 was unadjusted. Model 2 was adjusted for age (years), body mass index (BMI) scores, alcohol consumption (gram/day), smoking status (reference category: non-smokers), cortisol levels, GAD-7 sum scores, and CES-D sum scores.
  2. CI confidence interval, n sample sizes.
  3. +p ≤ 0.10; *p ≤ 0.05; **p ≤ 0.01; ***p ≤ 0.001.
  4. Presence of a childhood trauma was defined as follows: CTS item 1 (inverse coding) ≥4 or CTS item 2 ≥ 3 or CTS item 3 ≥ 3 or CTS item 4 ≥ 2 or CTS item 5 (inverse coding) ≥4. For all other cases, absence of a childhood trauma was assumed.
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