Objective: The study investigated the association between childhood trauma (CT), which is an environmental factor, and obesity.
Methods: The study was planned as a cross-sectional descriptive survey. Our study was conducted between 01.07.2022 and 01.08.2022. After obtaining informed consent from all participants over 18 years of age who presented to our outpatient clinic, they were examined using a face-to-face questionnaire. All subjects were interviewed using a 28-item CT scale form and a researcher-prepared questionnaire with 25 questions. The data obtained from the study were analyzed using the SPSS statistics 21 program and p<0.05 was considered significant.
Results: In our study, 63.67% of the 256 participants were female and 36.33% were male. The mean age of the participants was 38.53±14.61 years, and the mean body mass index was 30.01±7.14 kg/m2. No statistically significant association was found between the variables of current and childhood obesity status of the study participants and their CT questionnaire (CTQ) score (p>0.05). In the study, the mean CTQ total score was 36.92±11.88. There was no statistically significant association between children’s overweight/obesity problem and their childhood CTQ subgroup scores compared with their childhood peers (p<0.05).
Conclusion: In our study, no association was found between adult obesity and CTQ score. However, a significant association was found between emotional abuse, physical abuse, physical neglect, and obesity in adults, which are CTQ subsets.