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Trauma exposure and the subsequent risk of coronary heart disease among mid-aged women

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Abstract

The objective of the current study was to examine whether exposure to trauma in the form of a history of physical, mental, emotional or sexual abuse or violence predicted new onset of coronary heart disease (CHD) in women. In addition, this study aimed to examine the mediation effects of psychological, lifestyle and health related factors in the abuse-CHD relationship. Data from 6 surveys over 15 years, from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health, a large prospective cohort study, were used. Participants from the 1946–1951 cohort who did not self-report heart disease at surveys 1 (1996) and 2 (1998) and who had provided information on other variables were included (n = 9,276). After adjusting for age, women who reported trauma exposure at baseline were 1.54 times more likely (95 % confidence interval 1.29–1.83) to report new onset of CHD than those who did not report trauma exposure. The association between trauma and CHD was largely explained by psychological factors, suggesting a direct pathway between exposure to trauma and risk of CHD.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank the women for their participation in the study. The Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health is funded by the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing. This substudy was supported by a Cardiovascular Disease and Depression Strategic Research Grant (G07B3555) from the National Heart Foundation of Australia and beyondblue: the national depression initiative.

Conflict of interest

June Lee May Ling, Deborah Loxton and Deirdre McLaughlin declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

All procedures followed were in accordance with ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000. Informed consent was obtained from all patients for being included in the study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Population Health, The University of Queensland, Herston Road, Herston, QLD, 4006, Australia

    June Lee May-Ling & Deirdre McLaughlin

  2. Priority Research Centre for Gender, Health and Ageing, University of Newcastle, Newcastle, NSW, Australia

    Deborah Loxton

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  1. June Lee May-Ling
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  2. Deborah Loxton
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  3. Deirdre McLaughlin
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Correspondence to Deirdre McLaughlin.

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May-Ling, J.L., Loxton, D. & McLaughlin, D. Trauma exposure and the subsequent risk of coronary heart disease among mid-aged women. J Behav Med 38, 57–65 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10865-014-9577-2

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