Virginia Research Day 2025

Medical Student Research Public Health

04 The Association Between Adverse Childhood Experiences and Substance Use Disorders in Virginia Using the 2022 Behavioral Risk Factor Assessment (BRFSS) Dataset

Anna C. Liles, MPH, OMSII; Theresa J. McCann, PhD, MPH Corresponding author: aliles@vt.vcom.edu

Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine - Virginia Campus

Substance use disorder (SUD) continues to impact millions of Americans and their families. Regular use of tobacco, marijuana, and alcohol may provide a gateway to other substance use. Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are traumatic events that may occur during the first 17 years of life. These experiences include exposure to violence, abuse, or neglect, and have been shown to have lasting effects on health and well-being that extend into adulthood. The BRFSS is a randomized national telephone survey conducted by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that collects information about health-related risk behaviors, including SUD. Previous research using the 2019 and 2020 Behavioral

Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) dataset for the Commonwealth of Virginia, has demonstrated a link between ACEs and alcohol and tobacco use in adulthood. This study builds upon that research by exploring the impact of marijuana use, which was included as an optional question in the 2022 BRFSS survey. This study uses the 2022 BRFSS dataset for Virginia to conduct a cross-sectional analysis aimed at comparing the impact of exposure to ACEs on later use of alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana among adults ages 18 – 54 years. Exposure variable involves a higher versus lower ACE scores, adjusted for demographic variables.

The outcome variables will be reported alcohol consumption, tobacco use, and marijuana use. Our research aims to understand if an association exists between the prevalence of ACEs and the prevalence of reported tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana use in the 2022 Virginia state BRFSS dataset. The Virginia Department of Health and the VCOM IRB has reviewed this project and determined that it does not qualify as Human Subjects Research.

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2025 Research Recognition Day