Being stalked raised women's risk of heart disease
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Women who reported being stalked or who obtained a restraining order were likelier to experience a heart attack or stroke over the ensuing 20 years than those who didn't report such events, according to new research.
Why it matters: About 1 in 3 women have been stalked at some point in their lives but the connection with cardiovascular disease is poorly understood and has implications for heart health later in life.
- Psychological distress from stalking incidents may disrupt the nervous system, prevent blood vessels from functioning normally and damage other biological mechanisms, the researchers wrote in the American Heart Association's journal Circulation.
What they found: Women who reported having experienced stalking had a 41% greater risk of cardiovascular disease over the 20 years covered by the study, compared with women who didn't report.
- Those who reported obtaining a restraining order showed a 70% increased risk.
- The increased risks were apparent despite other factors, such as health and lifestyle choices, medications, other health conditions and symptoms of depression.
- About 3% of all of the women studied reported new-onset heart disease or stroke over the 20 years.
While stalking is often viewed as a form of violence that doesn't involve physical contact, the findings suggest it shouldn't be minimized, said lead author Rebecca Lawn of Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the School of Population and Public Health at the University of British Columbia.
- "Stalking can be chronic, and women often report making significant changes in response such as moving," Lawn said in a statement.
- The effects of stress can be long-lasting, possibly because it's human nature to rethink things that happen and experience the situation again and again, said Harmony Reynolds, a professor of cardiology at NYU Grossman School of Medicine.
The study covered 66,270 American women ages 36-56 years, who did not have cardiovascular disease in 2001, when they first shared whether they had experienced stalking or related harassment.
