NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Women who were physically or sexually abused as children are far more likely to enter into abusive relationships as adults, British researchers report.

The study findings suggest that identifying and helping girls who are being abused or are at risk for abuse can help break the cycle of family violence, according to researchers led by Dr. Jeremy Coid of St. Bartholomew's Hospital in London, UK.

About 1,200 women seeing primary care doctors in inner-city London completed questionnaires, answering questions on physical and sexual abuse in childhood, domestic violence, rape, assault and other traumatic experiences in adulthood, and alcohol and drug abuse. The women were at least 16 years old.

Those who were raped before the age of 16 were more than three times more likely to experience domestic violence as adults and nearly three times as likely to be raped, Coid's team reports in the August 11th issue of The Lancet. The frequency and severity of childhood abuse was also associated with abuse in adulthood.

Women who abused drugs or alcohol were also significantly more likely to be abused.

The researchers note that abused adults have been found to have higher rates of unemployment and poverty. Sexual abuse is also associated with unwanted pregnancies, multiple sex partners and psychiatric problems.

``We need to investigate therapeutic interventions for girls and young women who have experienced childhood abuse and are at risk of abuse in adulthood,'' the study authors conclude.

Overall, 9% of women reported that they had been raped in childhood, 11% reported unwanted sexual activities but no intercourse, 5% said they had been severely beaten by a parent or caretaker one time, and 12% said they had been beaten more than once. Two percent of women reported experiencing all forms of abuse during childhood.

As adults, 17% of the women said they had experienced domestic violence with more than one partner. Eight percent had been raped, and 9% had been sexually assaulted but not raped.

In an accompanying editorial, Dr. Richard D. Krugman of the University of Colorado in Denver and Dr. Felicia Cohn of the University of California, Irvine, write that family violence is not only a social and legal issue, but a health issue as well.

``Despite the evidence, health professionals, their institutions of higher learning, and governments have not responded substantively, whereas they have done so to health problems such as poliomyelitis, AIDS and cancer,'' they contend.

Instead of setting up commissions to study the cycle of family violence, policymakers need to find ways to encourage health professionals to address the situation, the editorialists suggest.

SOURCE: The Lancet 2001;358:434, 450-454.

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