Children who experience persistent psychological distress are much more likely to develop diabetes and heart disease later in life, even if their conditions improve in adulthood, a new study has found.

US researchers looked at almost 7,000 people who were born in the UK in a single week in 1958. The participants' mental health and stress levels were monitored over a 45-year period, when the participants were aged seven, 11, 16, 23, 33 and 42.

Their health was assessed at the age of 45 to see what their risk of developing diabetes and heart disease was - this is known as a cardiometabolic risk score. The higher the score, the more likely you are to develop these conditions.

The study found that those who were persistently distressed throughout their lives had the highest cardiometabolic risk scores compared to those who experienced low levels of distress. In other words, they had a much higher risk of developing diabetes and heart disease.

However, when other risk factors were taken into account, such as socioeconomic status and health behaviours, the researchers found that those who experienced persistent distress throughout their childhood, or their entire lives, had a higher cardiometabolic risk score than those who were distressed only in adulthood.

Those who were persistently distressed only in adulthood had a similar risk score to people with low levels of distress, suggesting that distress in the early years is key.

"This study supports growing evidence that psychological distress contributes to excess risk of cardiovascular and metabolic disease and that effects may be initiated relatively early in life.

"While effects of distress in early childhood on higher cardiometabolic risk in adulthood appeared to be somewhat mitigated if distress levels were lower by adulthood, they were not eradicated. This highlights the potentially lasting impact of childhood distress on adult physical health," the researchers commented.

They said that it is now ‘increasingly apparent' that adversity in a child's social environment increases the likelihood that they will experience distress. As a result, ‘early prevention and intervention strategies focused not only on the child, but also on his or her social circumstances, may be an effective way to reduce the long-lasting harmful effects of distress'.

Details of these findings are published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

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