Hypertension is a major factor in serious cardiovascular diseases such as heart attack or stroke.
According to a new investigation published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, women who are sexually assaulted in the workplace are at increased risk for high blood pressure.
30,000 nurses monitored
“Hypertension is a prevalent condition in women and an important modifiable risk factor for cardiovascular disease,” explain the researchers in the preamble. “Although sexual violence against women is common, no prospective study has so far investigated the long-term and large-scale relationship between this trauma and hypertension”, they add.
To overcome this lack of data, the researchers followed 30,000 nurses for 7 years. At the end of the follow-up, 7,096 women had developed hypertension, ie 21% of the total number. 23% of them had also suffered a sexual assault at their workplace, 12% sexual harassment and 6% both traumatic events.
“Identify a possible underlying mechanism”
“Compared to unexposed women, those who experienced both sexual assault and sexual harassment in the workplace had the highest risk of developing hypertension,” found the researchers after crossing all the data. The same phenomenon was observed, to a lesser extent, among nurses who were victims of sexual harassment or sexual assault only.
“Reducing this violence is important in itself and can also improve women’s cardiovascular health,” so they write.“This study underscores why it is important for health research to examine women’s experiences of sexual assault and sexual harassment in the workplace. Future research can build on these findings to determine whether sexual violence and hypertension are causally linked and identify a possible underlying mechanism”, concludes Laura Rowland, researcher at the National Institute of Mental Health.
.
