Women who experience stalking face higher heart disease, stroke risk

(CN) — A study published Monday indicates that women who’ve experienced stalking are more likely to develop heart disease and stroke.

The study published in the American Heart Association’s flagship journal , Circulation, found that women who reported experiencing stalking were 41% more likely to have cardiovascular disease. In comparison, women who obtained a restraining order were 70% more likely to report cardiovascular disease than those who had not.

Dr. Rebecca Lawn, a research associate in epidemiology at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston and at the School of Population and Public Health at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, authored the study.

“Although violence against women is common, and evidence has linked violence with consequences for women’s later heart health, it is still not widely recognized or routinely considered by health care professionals as a potential cardiovascular risk factor among women,” Lawn said in a press release. “We felt it was essential to look beyond traditional cardiovascular risk factors in women and strengthen our understanding of the relationship between underexplored types of violence and heart health.”

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, nearly 1 in 3 women reported experiencing stalking at some point in their lives. Lawn opined that prevention of stalking and violence would lead to improved lifetime cardiovascular health for women. Heart disease is the leading cause of death for women in the United States and worldwide.

“We also need to increase awareness about the potential health harms of experiencing violence and provide women with help and resources,” Lawn said.

Lawn advocated in the study for more research on noncontact forms of sexual violence. Lawn’s analysis suggests that psychological distress, which may disrupt the nervous system, proper blood vessel function, and other biological processes, is a potential reason for the findings.

“Stalking is often seen as a form of violence that does not involve physical contact, which may make it seem less serious,” Lawn said. “However, our findings suggest stalking should not be minimized. Stalking can be chronic, and women often report making significant changes in response, such as moving.”

Harmony Reynolds, former chair of the American Heart Association’s Clinical Cardiology & Stroke Women’s Health Science Committee, said the research shows that feeling unsafe impacts one’s health.

“A variety of stressful life experiences are known to increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, including adverse childhood experiences, financial stressors, grief and other experiences,” Reynolds said in a press release. “People subjected to intimate partner violence face about a 30% higher risk of developing cardiovascular disease in the next few years compared to others. While this study shows a more moderate risk, given the long-time frame, it highlights how feeling unsafe can affect the body, in addition to the mind.”

Reynolds, who did not work on the study, noted that social support may be beneficial.

“Perhaps because it is our nature to re-think about things that happen to us, making us experience the situation over and over. However, social support may mitigate the effects of stress,” Reynolds said. “It’s helpful to have people you can trust to talk with, whether they are family, friends, people in the community or professionals.”

Lawn authored similar studies highlighting the connection between women who’ve experienced sexual assault ordomestic violence and higher blood pressure.

The data comes from the Nurses’ Health Study II, a group of 66,000 female nurses who did not have cardiovascular disease and were an average age of 46 when surveyed in 2001. Researchers analyzed the same group in 2019.

Nearly 12% of those surveyed self-reported experiencing stalking, while over 5% reported obtaining a restraining order. After adjusting for sociodemographic and childhood or family factors, the study revealed that women whose medical records confirmed heart attacks or strokes were more likely to have reported being stalked or obtaining a restraining order.

Data from the National Violence Against Women Survey similarly showed women with a history of being stalked were more likely to report poor physical health as well as developing a chronic disease. The most recent National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey report on stalking, meanwhile, indicated that women who reported experiencing stalking were more likely to report conditions such as chronic pain or sleep difficulties.

The study’s limitations include that the bulk of those surveyed were white women. The study is also limited to only registered nurses, and previous research indicates that a history of violence, including stalking, is more common among those with low income.