Isolated kids at risk of heart disease as adults

By Staff
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NEW YORK, AUG 8 (Reuters) Children who tend to work by themselves, are not very well liked by their peers, or are otherwise socially isolated may have a higher risk of cardiovascular disease in adulthood, new study findings show.

''Longitudinal findings about children followed up to adulthood suggest that social isolation has persistent and cumulative detrimental effects on adult health,'' lead author Dr. Avshalom Caspi, of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and colleagues write in the Archives of Adolescent Medicine.

Previous studies have shown that loneliness and social isolation can have a detrimental effect on a person's physical health as well as psychological health. Previous studies have found that a lack of social support and isolation during adulthood are associated with coronary artery disease. Research has also shown that early life experiences may have a role in adult disease.

In the current study, Caspi and colleagues followed 1,037 children from birth to 26 years old. Parents and teachers assessed the subjects' social characteristics, body mass index and intelligence on eight different occasions during childhood.

At 26 years old, the subjects underwent physical evaluation, which included measuring blood pressure, total cholesterol and other factors associated with cardiovascular disease. The subjects were considered socially isolated if they had no social or emotional support or close relationships and had not dated at all or been involved with a partner in the past year. Eight percent of the group was considered socially isolated.

The researchers found that subjects with signs of social isolation in childhood had a 37 percent increased risk of poor health at age 26 years old. This remained true when the researchers' took into consideration adult social isolation, as well as known childhood risk factors for poor health, such as obesity, low social class, low IQ and aggression.

The association also remained after the researchers factored in the effects of health-damaging behaviors, such as a lack of exercise, smoking, and too much alcohol.

The association between childhood social isolation and poor adult health may be due to the ''cumulative wear and tear caused by repeated adaptations to psychosocial stressors,'' the researchers speculate.

Such stress may lead to a variety of responses, including high blood pressure or insulin resistance, that contribute to the clustering of factors that increase a person's risk for coronary artery disease. On the other hand, the researchers add, social isolation may disrupt the ''constructive and restorative processes that enhance physiological capacities.'' ''The epidemiologic evidence cannot identify the mechanisms involved, but is consistent with emerging evidence that social isolation and social exclusion may have tangible neurobiological effects on lifelong development,'' Caspi and colleagues conclude.

REUTERS BDP PC0935

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