How child abuse increases heart disease risk

Children should enjoy optimal physical, emotional and psychological development.

Apart from having a happy childhood, these goals also play a key role in disease prevention.

A new study published in the Heart Journal indicates that the emotional well-being of children influences their risk of suffering from cardiovascular disease (CVD) in future.

Cardiovascular disease describes a range of ailments that affect the heart and blood vessels.

They include heart failure, abnormal heart rhythm (arrhythmia), heart valve problems, heart infections and narrowing of blood vessels.

These conditions can lead to effects like heart attacks and strokes.

Based on the study, adults who were mistreated in childhood appear to have a higher risk of CVD.

Women especially, the research says, were more likely to have heart disease following a childhood that involved physical and sexual abuse or neglect.

During the study, scientists from the University of Bristol's Medical School assessed and compared associations between childhood maltreatment and cardiovascular disease in men and women in the UK.

157,000 PARTICIPANTS

They accomplished the task by analysing responses to an online mental health questionnaire completed by 157,311 participants from the UK Biobank, a database designed to improve prevention, diagnosis and treatment of illnesses).

The people selected had information on physical, sexual or emotional abuse, as well as emotional or physical neglect.

They suffered from high blood pressure, heart problems caused by narrowed heart arteries, cerebrovascular disease (disorders that affect blood supply to the brain) and other forms of cardiovascular disease.

Emotional neglect was the most common type of childhood maltreatment (22 percent), followed by physical abuse in men (21pc) and emotional abuse in women (18pc).

An in-depth analysis of these findings revealed that all types of maltreatment were associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease in both sexes.

However, all forms of maltreatment were more common in women except for physical abuse, which was more prevalent in men.

The results further showed that the prevalence of childhood maltreatment decreased with increasing age, except for sexual abuse in men that did not vary, and physical neglect, which increased across age categories.

Younger participants also reported a higher number of maltreatment types, especially women. The occurrence of CVD was 54.3 percent in men and 40.3 percent in women.

“All types of maltreatment were associated with a higher risk of cardiovascular disease in both men and women, with stronger associations in the latter and in younger participants,” noted the researchers, led by Dr Ana Gonçalves Soares from the University of Bristol's Medical School.

“Interventions that ameliorate the negative effects of childhood maltreatment are needed, as well as more understanding of the pathways that link childhood maltreatment to cardiovascular disease and whether they differ by sex, types of maltreatment and type of cardiovascular disease.”

While physical scars might heal with time, the emotional types often cause long-lasting impacts that hurt sense of self, future relationships and ability to function at home, work and school.

Some of these effects include lack of trust and relationship difficulties, as well as core feelings of being worthless.

Hypertension, a major contributor to the CVD burden has been rising in Kenya over the past 20 years.