WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - A recent study has found that children of divorce are 60 percent more likely to experience a stroke at some point in their lives compared to those who did not undergo such an ordeal during childhood.
'The magnitude of the association between parental divorce and stroke was comparable to well-established risk factors for stroke such as male gender and having diabetes,' said senior study author Esme Fuller-Thomson of the University of Toronto.
During the study, the team analyzed data from 13,200 adults aged 65 and older, all with no history of childhood abuse. One in nine participants whose parents had divorced reported that they had suffered a stroke, compared to one in fifteen of those whose parents had not divorced during their childhood.
'We don't know why people whose parents have divorced when they were children have a higher prevalence of stroke, but it may be that the stress impacts their sleep quality,' Fuller-Thomson explained.
'There is evidence that sleep disruption during childhood can set people up for developing insomnia in later life, and that may increase the risk of having a stroke.'
The researchers speculated that the stress of living around arguing parents or moving to different homes or schools after separation of parents could disrupt the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, which regulates the body's stress response, potentially leading to a stroke.
'The prolonged stress of your parents separating may also permanently change the body's response to stress, producing elevated levels of stress hormones like cortisol which can cause inflammation in the body and increase the risk of having a stroke,' Fuller-Thomson added.
However, the study had certain limitations. While the researchers took into account known stroke risk factors like diabetes, depression and small social support networks, they lacked key data on participants' blood pressure, cholesterol, contraceptive use, or age at parents' divorce.
Additionally, the study focused on older adults born in the 1950s or earlier, when divorce was less common and heavily stigmatized.
'Due to the changes in societal norms, it is not clear that Gen X or Millennial Americans will experience a similar link between parental divorce and stroke as was evident in our sample from the Baby Boom and Silent Generation cohorts,' the researchers noted.
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