Sexual assault, harassment may drive hypertension risk among women
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Women reporting a history of sexual assault and workplace sexual harassment were at increased risk for developing hypertension at 7 years, according to research published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
The data, an analysis of the Nurses’ Health Study II, showed sexual violence was common, with 23% of women reporting sexual assault and 12% reporting workplace sexual harassment during their lifetime.
“Although sexual assault and workplace sexual harassment are common experiences among women, they are not often recognized as a contributor to women’s long-term CV health, such as risk for hypertension,” Rebecca Lawn, PhD, a postdoctoral research fellow in the department of epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, told Healio. “Given the burden of sexual violence and CVD in women, we felt it was a priority to better examine a potential relationship between sexual assault/workplace sexual harassment and hypertension to aid early identification of factors that might influence women’s CV health.”
Lawn and colleagues analyzed data from 33,127 women participating in the Nurses’ Health Study II who did not have hypertension at the time they completed a sexual assault and workplace sexual harassment assessment in 2008 (mean age at baseline, 53 years; 95% white). Hypertension was defined as self-reported doctor diagnosis or initiating antihypertensive medication use and was assessed biennially through 2015. Researchers assessed sexual violence exposure and developed models to estimate risk for developing hypertension.
During follow-up, 21% of women developed hypertension.
Sexual assault and workplace sexual harassment were prevalent (23% and 12%, respectively), with 6% of women reporting both. Compared with women with no exposure, women who experienced sexual assault and workplace sexual harassment had the highest risk for developing hypertension, with an HR of 1.21 (95% CI, 1.09-1.35), followed by women who experienced workplace sexual harassment (HR = 1.15; 95% CI, 1.05-1.25) and women who experienced sexual assault (HR = 1.11; 95% CI, 1.03-1.19). Results persisted after adjustment for psychological distress, sociodemographic and family factors.
“Interestingly, we did not see associations between history of other traumas and risk of hypertension, suggesting that increased hypertension risk does not follow any trauma exposure and may be related to trauma type, frequency or severity,” the researchers wrote. “Our finding that experiencing both sexual assault and workplace sexual harassment showed the highest risk of hypertension underscores the potential compounding effects of multiple sexual violence exposures on health.”
Lawn said preventing sexual violence against women may also have benefits for their long-term CV health.
“Screening women at risk for CV health problems for a history of these types of sexual violence experiences and addressing any potential CV consequences may be beneficial for women’s health,” Lawn told Healio. “We hope future studies will examine these questions with more detailed information on the severity and timing of sexual assault and workplace sexual harassment to further understand the relationship between these experiences and the risk of hypertension, as well as investigate these relationships in groups of diverse ages, race/ethnicities and background.”
For more information:
Rebecca Lawn, PhD, can be reached at rlawn@hsph.harvard.edu.
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