Contrary to to earlier beliefs, childhood diseases do not affect the life expectancy later on in life, new research shows.
A survey conducted jointly by the University of Turku in Finland and Stirling University in Britain show that whooping cough and other infectious diseases that are common among children, do not increase the risk of suffering from cardiovascular disease, heart attack or cancer later in life.
It has previously been believed that the protracted infectious diseases affecting children may increase the risk of those suffering from them dying earlier due to cardiovascular diseases.
The methods used by the researchers who found that childhood diseases do not contribute to poor health later in life included using church records as a source of information on finns a born between 1751 to 1850. The researchers looked at both the dates of birth, marriage dates and dates of death of the registered people and noted the periods when epidemics ravaged the test subjects’ home municipalities.
The researchers then analyzed whether the test subjects who were affected by an infectious disease as children, subsequently developed cardiovascular diseases, and how many children they got.
Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today
