Assessment of adverse childhood experiences, undernutrition symptoms and gender among sample of medical students in Fallujah University – Iraq: A preliminary study

Background: Adverse childhood experiences is considered as major risk factor for several health problems and diseases during adulthood, such as hypertension, IHD, and eating disorders. The aim of current study was to measure the association between ACEs and malnutrition symptoms among sample of medical students in Fallujah University. Methods: A convenience sample was used to recruit the participants; the data collection was carried out during December 2022. The questionnaire consisted from questions for demographical variables, questions for adverse childhood experiences and Short Nutritional Questionnaire was used for assessing the undernutrition symptoms among the subjects. Results: Female subjects consisted 62.8% of the sample, 28.3% of the students had zero score of adverse childhood experience, 13% of the subjects had one score of ACEs and 45% of the participants had four or more of ACEs score. There was a statistically non- significant association between exposure to ACEs and undernutrition symptoms, p > .05. The logistic regression model revealed that female subjects had a risk of five folds for loss of appetite compare to male subjects (OR = 5.58, 95% CI [2.18, 14.31]). The females also had three folds for using nutritional supplement due to nutritional deficiencies compare to males (OR = 3.28, 95% CI [1.33, 8.1]). Conclusion: ACEs was not associated with undernutrition symptoms. Gender is significantly related with loss of appetite and using the nutritional supplement.