Heart disease more likely for adults with dysfunctional childhoods

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-04/nu-hdm042820.php

News Release 28-Apr-2020
Northwestern University


Children who experience trauma, abuse, neglect and family dysfunction are at increased risk of having heart disease in their 50s and 60s, according to a new Northwestern Medicine study.

Results from the study showed people exposed to the highest levels of childhood family environment adversity were more than 50 percent more likely to have a cardiovascular disease event such as a heart attack or stroke over a 30-year follow-up.

•••••

Children who experience this type of adversity are predisposed to higher rates of lifelong stress, smoking, anxiety, depression and sedentary lifestyle that persist into adulthood. These can lead to increased body mass index (BMI), diabetes, increased blood pressure, vascular dysfunction and inflammation.

"This population of adults is much more likely to partake in risky behaviors - for example, using food as a coping mechanism, which can lead to problems with weight and obesity," said first author Jacob Pierce, a fourth-year medical student at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. "They also have higher rates of smoking, which has a direct link to cardiovascular disease."

•••••

"Social and economic support for young children in the United States, which is low by the standards of other developed countries, has the biggest 'bang for the buck' of any social program."

•••••

tags: child abuse