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Your Parents' Divorce Could Lead to Higher Stroke Risk, Study Finds
Past studies have found a link between parental divorce and their children developing mental health issues, but new research published in the Public Library of Science One journal found a concerning correlation between parents' separation and physical health.
Researchers from the University of Toronto, Tyndale University, and the University of Texas at Arlington found that older adults are at higher risk of having a stroke if they experienced their parents divorcing during their childhood. To reach this conclusion, they analyzed a sample of 13,205 adults aged 65 and above who have had strokes and focused on parental divorce as a possible factor. They found that participants who experienced parental divorce had 1.61 times better odds of having stroke when compared to those who didn't live through it. In total, those whose parents divorced had a one in nine chance of getting diagnosed with a stroke after 65 compared to one in 15 for children of non-divorced parents.
"Our study indicates that even after taking into account most of the known risk factors associated with stroke—including smoking, physical inactivity, lower income and education, diabetes, depression, and low social support—those whose parents had divorced still had 61 percent higher odds of having a stroke," study lead author Mary Kate Schilke said in a statement.
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The study builds on scientific literature that has found diabetes and depression as risk factors for stroke later in life with similar levels of incidence. Still, more work needs to be done to determine just how much factors like these can affect our proneness to stroke in adulthood.
"We need to shed light on the mechanisms that may contribute to this association," study author Esme Fuller-Thomson said. "While these types of survey-based studies cannot establish causality, we are hoping that our consistent findings will inspire others to examine the topic."
In this case, there might be at least one reason for staying together for the sake of the kids.