Older adults who experienced parental divorce during childhood had a higher risk of stroke, even after controlling for other risk factors such as diabetes and depression, according to a recent study.
In the cross-sectional study, published in PLOS ONE, investigators examined the association between childhood parental divorce and stroke risk in older adulthood among participants without a history of childhood physical or sexual abuse. They utilized data from the 2022 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System to analyze 13,205 respondents aged 65 years and older. The investigators employed binary logistic regression to evaluate the impact of parental divorce, controlling for sociodemographic factors, adverse childhood experiences, health behaviors, and chronic conditions.
In the study sample, 7.3% of the respondents reported a physician-diagnosed stroke, and 13.9% of them experienced parental divorce before age 18 years. After adjusting for confounding variables, the respondents who experienced parental divorce had a 1.61 times higher risk of reporting a stroke (adjusted odds ratio [OR] = 1.61, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.15–2.24, P = .005) compared with those who didn't have such experiences, noted lead study author Mary Kate Schilke, of the Department of Psychology at Tyndale University, and her colleagues. The association was independent of sex, although male respondents had a higher stroke risk overall (adjusted OR = 1.47, 95% CI = 1.11–1.93, P = .006) relative to female respondents.
The investigators controlled for multiple variables, including depression and diabetes, which also significantly contributed to stroke risk. Participants with depression had a 1.76 times higher risk of stroke (95% CI = 1.22–2.54, P = .002), whereas those with diabetes had a 1.37 times higher risk (95% CI = 1.03–1.81, P = .031). Behavioral factors such as smoking and physical inactivity were also associated with increased stroke prevalence, with 11.2% of current smokers reporting stroke compared with 7.1% of nonsmokers (P < .001), and 10.9% of physically inactive respondents reporting stroke compared with 6.7% of those active (P < .001).
The investigators hypothesized that mechanisms such as chronic stress and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis dysregulation may underlie the observed association. They noted the study's cross-sectional design as a limitation, precluding causal inference. Despite this, the findings highlighted parental divorce as a potentially significant factor in stroke risk, warranting further longitudinal research to clarify pathways and inform preventive strategies.
Full disclosures can be found in the published study.