Pediatric ACEs Screening and Resiliency Study

Summary

Stressful and traumatic experiences in childhood (Adverse Childhood Events, or ACEs) have been associated with poor health outcomes that extend into adulthood. When stress is sustained or severe in the absence of an adequate buffer, the stress response can become dysregulated--a state referred to as toxic stress. Some professional organizations have advocated for ACEs screening to be part of routine medical care. To date, however, no ACEs screening tool has been validated for use with children. Intervening early at critical points in the life course has the potential to allow a child to avoid the negative consequences of these adverse events.

The proposed study has three overarching aims: (1) Examine the relationship between ACEs, stress biomarkers, and symptoms in children and caregivers over time; (2) Validate an ACEs screening in a pediatric health care setting; and (3) Test whether providing primary care-based preventive interventions for children with or at risk for toxic stress can lead to detectable changes in biomarkers, behavior, or health outcomes for children and/or caregivers.

Conditions

• Fibrinogen Abnormality
• Telomere Length, Mean Leukocyte
• Atopic
• Acute Infection
• Inflammatory Response
• Self-regulation

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Care Coordination

Screening and referral for basic needs and adult mental health

BEHAVIORAL

Resiliency Clinic

Mindfulness-based caregiver-child group medical care

BEHAVIORAL

Usual Care

Usual Primary Pediatric Care

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of California, San Francisco

  collaborator OTHER

• UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital Oakland

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Dayna Long, MD · UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital Oakland

• Neeta Thakur, MD · University of California, San Francisco

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

SCREENING

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

3 Months

Max Age

11 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2017-03-17

Primary Completion

2019-12-23

Completion

2019-12-23

Countries

• United States

Study Locations