New research finds childhood experience of parental violence increases risk of heart disease in adulthood

Children who witness violence between their parents are at a greater risk of developing heart disease later in life.

Researchers from Edith Cowan University and Jilin University, a leading public research university in north-east China, made the major finding after observing the heart health of a group of more than 10,000 people aged 45 and over for almost a decade.

Participants completed a questionnaire about whether they had experienced parental violence during childhood and how often.

They found those who were exposed to physical violence between their parents had a 36 per cent greater risk of developing heart disease.

During a nine-year period, almost a quarter of people in the study had been diagnosed with some form of cardiovascular disease, with 1848 cases of heart disease and 822 cases of stroke.

The astonishing findings, published today in medical journal JAMA Network Open, adds to the growing body of knowledge about the intergenerational health impacts of domestic and family violence.

“Our findings underscore the importance of addressing the problem of household violence in early life as a significant public health issue,” the paper said.

The researchers also found those who witnessed inter-parental violence were more likely to suffer from depressive symptoms as an adult, but this only explained about 11 per cent of the link between such violence and heart disease later in life.

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