Children who experience high levels of stress may be at greater risk for diabetes and heart disease later in life, according to a new study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. It is well established that stress can have negative implications for health, however it was not clear whether stress at childhood cause deteriorated health later in life. Lead author Ashley Winning( Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, MA) and colleagues analyzed data of almost 7,000 people who were part of the 1958 British Birth Cohort Study. All participants were born the same week and were followed for an average of 45 years. Information about the subjects' stress and mental health was collected at the ages of 7, 11, 16, 23, 33 and 42 years. At the age of 45, the participants' blood pressure was checked and blood samples were taken and assessed for nine biological markers. Together, this gave the researchers a cardiometabolic risk score that indicates an individual's risk for diabetes and heart disease The team found that the cardiometabolic risk for individuals who experienced stress from childhood right through to middle adulthood was higher than that commonly associated with childhood overweight and obesity. Individuals whose stress levels were highest in childhood and those whose stress levels were highest in adulthood were also found to have higher cardiometabolic risk scores.

When the researchers adjusted the results to account for factors that may influence cardiometabolic risk, such as socioeconomic status, medication use and health behaviors, they found the cardiometabolic risk of individuals who experienced high stress levels in adulthood were no higher than those who experienced low stress levels throughout their lifetime.

However, even after accounting for influential factors, the team found that individuals who experienced high levels of stress in childhood and those with persistent stress from childhood through to adulthood had significantly higher cardiometabolic risk scores than those with low stress levels over their lifetime.

Winning says these findings support increasing evidence that childhood stress influences the risk of diabetes and heart disease later in life.

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