Perceived stress during childhood has ‘far-reaching’ effect on cardiometabolic health
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Key takeaways:
- New data link high perceived stress during early life to greater cardiometabolic risk during adulthood.
- Adults reporting consistently high stress were five times more likely to develop obesity.
Adults who reported high levels of perceived stress, particularly throughout early childhood, adolescence and early adulthood, were much more likely to develop cardiometabolic risk factors than those with low perceived stress, data show.
The longitudinal data on stress — collected during early childhood, adolescence and early adulthood — suggest that promoting healthy coping strategies for stress during early life can reduce cardiometabolic risk, according to Fangqi Guo, PhD, a postdoctoral research fellow at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California.
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“Our findings suggest that perceived stress patterns over time have a far-reaching effect on various cardiometabolic measures including fat distribution, vascular health and obesity,” Guo said in a press release. “This could highlight the importance of stress management as early as in adolescence as a health protective behavior.”
Guo and colleagues analyzed data from 276 participants from the Southern California Children’s Health Study (2003-2014) who underwent a follow-up assessment from 2018 to 2021 (56% girls/women; 62% white; 42% Hispanic). Parents completed a Perceived Stress Scale for their children at baseline, when mean age of participants was 6 years. The participants then completed the scale themselves during adolescence (mean age, 13 years) and young adulthood (mean age, 24 years).
Researchers stratified participants by four typical stress patterns: consistently high, decreasing, increasing and consistently low. They assessed cardiometabolic risk via several parameters, including carotid artery intima-media thickness, systolic and diastolic BP, obesity, percent body fat, android-to-gynoid ratio and HbA1c.
Researchers estimated the association between Perceived Stress Scale score during the three measured time points and adult cardiometabolic risk, as well as the impact of a participant’s stress pattern on adult cardiometabolic risk.
The findings were published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
Within the cohort, the mean parent-perceived stress score for participants as children (mean, 3.9) was lower than participants’ perceived stress in either adolescence (P < .001) or adulthood (P < .001). Adult Perceived Stress Score was correlated with adolescent score (r = 0.218; P = .001) but not with the childhood scores perceived by parents (r = 0.004; P = .771).
Researchers found that during adulthood, higher Perceived Stress Scale score was associated with increased overall cardiometabolic risk (beta = 0.12; 95% CI, 0.01-0.22), carotid intima-media thickness (beta = 0.01; 95% CI, 0.0003-0.02), systolic BP (beta = 1.27; 95% CI, 0.09-2.45) and diastolic BP (beta = 0.94; 95% CI, 0.13-1.75).
Individuals with a consistently high adolescence-to-adulthood stress pattern had greater overall cardiometabolic risk (beta = 0.31; 95% CI, 0.02-0.6), android-to-gynoid ratio (beta = 0.07; 95% CI, 0.02-0.13), percent body fat (beta = 2.59; 95% CI, 0.01-5.17) and greater odds for obesity (OR = 5.57; 95% CI; 1.62-19.1) in adulthood, compared with those with a consistently low Perceived Stress Scale score.
“Although we assumed that perceived stress patterns should have some association with cardiometabolic measures, we did not expect such consistent patterns across various risk factors,” Guo said in the release. “Health care professionals should consider using the Perceived Stress Scale to evaluate individuals’ stress levels during clinic visits. This way, those with higher stress levels can be identified and receive treatment earlier.”
Reference:
- Childhood stress linked to higher risk of high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes in adults. https://newsroom.heart.org/news/childhood-stress-linked-to-higher-risk-of-high-blood-pressure-obesity-diabetes-in-adults. Published on Jan. 17, 2024. Accessed on Jan. 17, 2024.
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