Growing up in a challenging family environment is associated with higher rates of cardiovascular disease and mortality in middle age, according to a large prospective study. Lasting physiological, psychological, and behavioral changes are likely to play a role.
Traumatic experiences in childhood can disrupt a person’s ability to handle stressful events later in their life. As an adult, they may turn to unhealthful coping strategies, such as smoking and overeating.
Research suggests that people who experienced abuse and neglect in their childhood are more likely to have diabetes, high blood pressure, inflammation, and higher levels of the hormone cortisol in response to stress.
However, few longitudinal studies have followed individuals into middle age to investigate whether childhood adversity might affect the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and mortality.
But now, the largest ever study of this kind suggests that people who experience trauma, neglect, and family dysfunction as children are significantly more likely to have a CVD event, such as a heart attack or stroke, in middle age.
They may also have a higher mortality rate from all causes.
The study, which Jacob B. Pierce at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, IL, led, appears in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
The researchers suspect that extreme adversity in childhood makes people more likely to take risks with their health.
“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,” says Pierce, a fourth-year medical student at the university.
“They also have higher rates of smoking, which has a direct link to cardiovascular disease,” he adds.
The research used data from the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study, which recruited a racially and socioeconomically diverse group of people aged 18–30 years in 1985–1986. CARDIA took place in four cities across the United States: Birmingham, AL, Chicago, IL, Minneapolis, MN, and Oakland, CA.
Over the three decades of the CARDIA study through to 2018, researchers regularly checked the participants’ physical and mental health.
In 2000–2001, more than 3,600 participants filled out a questionnaire to assess their experience in relation