Childhood parental divorce increases stroke risk in older adults, even after accounting for other health factors.

Seniors have a 61% higher risk of stroke if their parents divorced when they were children or teenagers, researchers reported in a study published Jan. 22 in the journal PLOS One. The level of added risk is on par with that posed by two other well-established risk factors for stroke, diabetes and depression, researchers said.

Kids of divorced parents are nearly two-thirds more likely to have a stroke in later life than those whose parents didn't split.

Researchers encourage clinicians to consider divorce in childhood a potentially important risk factor for stroke.