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Childhood bullying and healthcare adherence in adulthood

Background: The relationship between childhood bullying and healthcare adherence in adulthood has been rarely studied, but one published study suggests that being bullied in childhood is related to lower healthcare adherence among adolescents. This previous study examined few adherence variables and was limited to youths. Aims: In this study, we assessed five variables for childhood bullying as related to seven measures of healthcare adherence among a cohort of adult primary care outpatients. Method: Using a cross-sectional, self-report survey methodology in a sample of 263 consecutive internal medicine outpatients, we examined five aspects of bullying and seven aspects of adherence with general healthcare. Results: Being a victim of bullying, type of bullying (emotional, physical), number of years bullied and number of bullies each evidenced no statistical relationships with healthcare adherence. However, being a bully demonstrated several statistical relationships with healthcare adherence, indicating less adherence to instructions provided by healthcare professionals. Conclusions: Despite all of the deleterious psychological and physical effects of being bullied in childhood, there was no evidence that non-adherence with healthcare in adulthood is one of them. In contrast, bullies evidenced several areas of reduced healthcare adherence.