A study has found that child maltreatment is linked with an increased risk of heart failure as an adult. In a perfect world, all children would live a life free of hardships and neglect, but sadly, that is not the world that we live in. There are children all across the US, and the world, who are victims of maltreatment.
While work is being done to see it end, there have to be strategies in place to help the children now. This means studies are done to see what the impacts of child maltreatment are, and this can help push professionals in the right direction when it comes to interventions and treatment plans.
According to Medical Xpress, a new study was done, and it showed a link between abuse, neglect, and heart failure risk as an adult. The American Heart Association did this study, and it can be read in full here.
To complete this study, they looked at data from more than 150,000 adults in the UK, and they were able to narrow it down to adults who had experienced child maltreatment. They defined child maltreatment as physical abuse, physical neglect, emotional abuse, emotional neglect, and sexual abuse.
They were also able to look and see if there was a genetic reason so that they could rule that out. They found that there is a link between childhood trauma and heart/health problems. However, this is the first study that has been able to narrow down the exact heart risk that these children can face when they are an adult.
They found a specific link between child maltreatment and heart failure. Heart failure is when the heart cannot pump enough blood to meet the needs of the body. They found that there was a 14% increase in the risk of developing heart failure if an adult had suffered child abuse when they were younger. They found this link also existed if they did not have a genetic history of heart problems.
This study is important research, and it can help medical providers know which adult patients to monitor for heart health. If they have a patient that they know suffered from child maltreatment, they can routinely monitor their heart health, and they may be able to catch an issue early on. It is also a nod to how important it is to work to stop child maltreatment, as the impacts can carry with them for the rest of their lives, and it could prove to be fatal one day.
Sources: Medical Xpress, AHA Journals