A new U.S. study offers more evidence that childhood experience may have health effects that echo into adulthood.

Based on health data for 500 unrelated black men over age 20 enrolled in the Howard University Family Study, researchers found those who had lived with one parent rather than two as children had higher average blood pressure readings.

The men who had grown up in single-parent households also had a 46 percent greater risk of developing high blood pressure, also known as hypertension.

"These differences in mean blood pressure and the prevalence of hypertension among men raised in two-parent households vs. single-parent households during childhood are quite significant," Debbie Barrington said.