Having parents who divorced when you were a child may raise the risk of suffering a stroke.
Older people who were children of divorce are about 60 per cent more likely to have a stroke than people of the same age whose parents stayed together, a study has found.
Researchers looked at 13,205 people aged 65 and over, finding one in nine whose parents divorced when they were children had gone on to suffer a stroke.
The prolonged stress of being around arguing and tense parents, and perhaps moving to a new home or school after their separation, could have a long-lasting effect on health, the study authors suggest.
Professor Esme Fuller-Thomson, senior author of the study from the University of Toronto, said: ‘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.
‘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 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.
‘However, our study focused on older adults born in the 1950s or earlier, when divorce was rare and very stigmatised.’
Experts said the stress of watching parents argue and potential sleep deprivation could put children of divorce at higher risk of stroke.
In the UK, someone has a stroke every five minutes, with 100,000 people a year affected, while there are a total of 1.3 million stroke survivors.
The new study, published in the journal PLOS One, looked at data on older people in the US who had been surveyed on their health and lifestyle in 2022, and were asked if they had suffered a stroke.
Among those whose parents had divorced before they were 18 years old, 11.2 per cent reported having had a stroke.
That compared to just 7.5 per cent of those whose parents had stayed together.
The researchers took into account other factors which could increase the risk of having a stroke, including smoking and being physically inactive.
They also removed people who had suffered childhood abuse from the analysis, so they could be sure it was divorce and not more traumatic family issues which were linked to a greater risk of stroke.
Taking all these factors into account, the study found people whose parents had divorced during their childhood were 61 per cent more likely to have had a stroke.
Both men and women had a similarly elevated risk.
Among the most well known children of divorce are the kids of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt: From left to right – Maddox, 23, Vivienne, 16, Zahara, 20, Shiloh, 18 and Knox, 16, as well as Pax (not pictured), 21
Stroke symptoms are commonly remembered under this four-letter acronym, FAST. Patients experiencing a stroke can often have their face drop on one side, struggle to lift both arms and have slurred speech, while time is essential, as immediate treatment for a transient ischemic attack (TIA) or minor stroke can substantially slash the risk of a much deadlier major stroke
Interestingly, the higher risk of having a stroke linked to being a child of divorce was comparable to the higher risk seen in people with diabetes – a disease which damages the blood vessels, raising the risk of a blood clot which can cause a stroke.
People with diabetes were only 37 per cent more likely to suffer a stroke than people free of the condition.
The 11.2 per cent of children of divorce who had a stroke was higher than the rate of 10.7 per cent among people who had divorced or separated from a partner themselves.
The study states: ‘Parental divorce is a source of substantial stress for many children, as displayed through higher rates of emotional and behavioural disruption and poorer mental health.’
But researchers point out that the reduced stigma attached to divorce may mean a link with stroke is less apparent in younger generations.
