PARENTS of children with common neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD) may face a higher risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) than parents of children without diagnoses, a 2026 Swedish cohort study of more than 2 million people has found.1
Calculating Risk
Researchers collected data from a study sample of 1,180,457 mothers and 882,619 fathers, with a mean follow-up of 16 years.
Of the population, 187,951 mothers and 143,486 fathers had at least one child diagnosed with intellectual disability, autism spectrum disorder, or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.
Mothers who had children with diagnosed NDDs had a hazard ratio of 1.27. The value for fathers was 1.20, signalling a greater risk of parental CVD among maternal figures.
CVD risk also progressively increased with the number of affected children. Among mothers, the hazard ratios for CVD risk were 1.22, 1.39, and 1.66 for one, two, and three or more children with NDDs, respectively. Among fathers, the corresponding hazard ratios were 1.16, 1.33, and 1.50.
The risk of CVD also tended to be greater if the affected child also had comorbid conditions and results stayed consistent across the sibling comparison analysis.
A Potential Explanation for the Association
Previous studies of parents of children with NDDs have found that they face higher levels of stress and burnout.2
This reflects the chronic nature of their broad caregiving responsibilities, authors said, from coordinating treatment and dealing with unexpected emergencies, to advocating for their child and providing additional educational support.
Researchers also pointed towards the psychological stress associated with a child’s diagnosis and the reallocation of family resources to provide for any necessary care as potential explanations for the heighted parental strain.2,3
This, they said, can trigger stress-related biological processes that could then lead to adverse cardiometabolic changes.3
Implications for Clinical Care
Researchers noted that the effect sizes were small but nonetheless noteworthy, due to the high prevalence of NDDs and associated public health relevance.
They called for the need for early CVD monitoring in parents of children with NDDs, if findings are affirmed by future studies.
References
1 Wang H et al. Risk of cardiovascular disease in parents of children diagnosed with neurodevelopmental disorders. JAMA Pediatr. 2026;DOI:jamapediatrics.2026.0857.
2 Craig F et al. Parenting stress among parents of children with neurodevelopmental disorders. Psychiatry Res. 2016;242:121-129.
3 Vaccarino V, Bremner JD. Stress and cardiovascular disease: an update. Nat Rev Cardiol. 2024;21(9):603-616.
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