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(HealthNewsDigest.com) – ORLANDO, Fla., Nov. 13, 2011 — Sexually and physically abused girls may have higher risks for heart attacks, heart disease and strokes as adults, according to research presented at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2011.
In the study, compared to women who weren’t molested or raped as
children or teens, women who reported:
— Repeated episodes of forced sex in childhood or adolescence had a 62
percent higher risk of cardiovascular disease as adults.
— Severe physical abuse in childhood or adolescence was associated with a
45 percent increased risk of cardiovascular events.
Mild to moderate physical or sexual abuse was not associated with
increased risk.
“The single biggest factor explaining the link between severe child
abuse and adult cardiovascular disease was the tendency of abused girls
to have gained more weight throughout adolescence and into adulthood,’
said Janet Rich-Edwards, Sc.D., M.P.H., lead author of the study and
associate professor in the Department of Medicine at Brigham and
Women’s Hospital in Boston, Mass.
The researchers studied the associations of child and adolescent abuse
with confirmed cardiovascular disease events such as heart attacks and
strokes from 1989-2007 among 67,102 women in the Nurses’ Health Study
II. Eleven percent reported forced sexual activity during childhood and
adolescence and 9 percent reported severe physical abuse.
Associations of severe abuse were stronger for stroke than for heart
attack. Risk factors such as adult body mass index, smoking, alcohol
use, hypertension and diabetes accounted for 41 percent of the
association of severe physical abuse and 37 percent of the association
of forced sex with cardiovascular disease events. “These traditional
cardiovascular risk factors explain about 40 percent of the association
we see between abuse and cardiovascular disease — which suggests that
other factors may play an important role, such as increased stress
reactivity among people with a history of abuse,” said Rich-Edwards.
Researchers conducted the study with primarily white nurses, so further
research should be done with different socio-demographic groups,
Rich-Edwards said.
“Women who experience abuse need to take special care of their physical
and emotional well-being to reduce their risk of chronic disease,”
Rich-Edwards said. “Primary care health professionals need to consider
childhood abuse histories of women as they transition into adulthood
but to help the health professionals prevent cardiovascular disease
among women with a history of abuse, we need to learn more about
specific psychological, lifestyle, and medical interventions to improve
the health of abuse survivors.”
Co-authors are: Susan Mason, Ph.D.; Kathryn Rexrode, M.D.; Donna
Spiegelman, Sc.D.; Eileen Hilbert, M.S.; Ichiro Kawachi, Ph.D.; Hee-Jin
Jun, Sc.D. and Rosalind Wright, M.D.
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