Family linked to mom’s greater heart risk

Women in the sandwich generation who live in a household of three generations triple their odds of serious heart disease, Japanese researchers said.

The study assessed the long-term impact on health of domestic living arrangements among nearly 91,000 Japanese men and women ages 40 and 69. None of the study participants had been diagnosed with any serious illness, such as cancer, heart disease or stroke at the start of the study in 1990-94.

The study participants were questioned about their personal and family medical histories, lifestyle, perceived stress, occupation, personality as well as living arrangements.

After taking account of factors likely to influence the results, women who lived with a partner, children, parents or spouse’s parents, were two to three times more likely to be diagnosed with coronary heart disease than women who just lived with a partner.

The researchers said that the heart risk increased not on only in women living with parents and children, but women who lived with a partner and children were found to be twice as likely to be diagnosed with coronary heart disease compared with women who lived in households without children.

The study, published in the British Medical Journal ahead of print in Heart, found while having parents in the home seems to deter unhealthy behaviors, such as heavy drinking and smoking, the stress of fulfilling multiple roles as daughter/mother/partner probably has a deleterious effect on heart health.