Women who have been sexually abused – assaulted, sexually harassed in the workplace or both – are at greater risk for developing hypertension than women without such a traumatic history, according to a major new US scientific study. , the first to make this correlation. According to the new study, the risk of hypertension due to sexual violence is proportional in size to other factors that have so far attracted the most attention, such as sexual abuse in childhood or adolescence, insomnia or environmental pollution.
Nearly 43% of women over the age of 20 have high blood pressure (130/80 mm Hg and above), according to the American Heart Association. Hypertension is a known major risk factor for cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of death in women.
The researchers, led by epidemiologist Dr. Rebecca Lowe of the Harvard University School of Public Health in Boston, who published the study in the Journal of the American Heart Association, analyzed data from 33,127 women with a mean age of 53, who were followed for seven years. years who had no history of hypertension or were taking antihypertensive drugs at the beginning of the study. In the course of the research 7,100 women or about one in five (21%) developed hypertension.
23% of women had experienced sexual assault at some point in their lives, 12% had experienced sexual harassment in the workplace, and 6% had suffered both. Compared to women who had no such experience, women who reported experiencing both assault and harassment had a 21% increased risk of hypertension, those who had been sexually assaulted had a 15% increased risk, and those who had experienced work harassment, had an 11% higher risk of high blood pressure.
The study did not correlate the increased risk of hypertension with a history of other traumatic experiences in women other than sexual violence or harassment, which, according to Lowen, “shows that the increased risk of hypertension does not appear to be related to exposure in all “On the other hand, those who have experienced both sexual assault and sexual harassment in their work environment are at the highest risk of developing hypertension.”
The researchers noted that to date, sexual violence has generally not been recognized as a cardiovascular risk factor for women, something that needs to change. Lawn noted that “experiences of sexual violence in the form of assault or harassment at work are common and women are disproportionately victims of such violence, with 13% to 44% of women reporting sexual assault and up to 80% occupational sexual harassment “However, exposure to sexual violence has not been widely recognized as affecting women’s cardiovascular health.”
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