by Stalking increases the risk of heart diseases in women and should be added to risk factors in addition to smoking and poor nutrition, since scientists are warned.
Harvard University discovered that women who were persecuted 41 percent more often suffer from cardiovascular diseases, which can lead to heart attacks and lines.
For those who are forced to receive an injunction, the risk increased to 70 percent.
According to the Crime Survey for England and Wales, each of five women and one of 11 men were victims of stalking.
Although it is known that Stalking causes fear and triggers mental health problems, the new study shows the first to show that it affects heart health.
“For many people, stalking does not seem to be so serious, since it often does not include physical contact. But stalking has profound psychological consequences that can have physical effects,” said the senior author Dr. Karestan Koenen, Professor of Psychiatric Epidemiology at the Harvard -chan School for Public Health.
“Our study shows that these avoidable, common, non -contacts of violence against women represent health risks and have to be regarded as such, just as we consider to consider smoking or poor nutrition.”
Stalking is defined as linked incidents that cause distress, fear or alarm, the obscene, threatening undesirable letters, text messages or telephone calls are threatened, observed or followed or let people walk around the house or at work. The crime survey estimated more than 129,000 stalking crimes last year.
For the new studies, researchers examined the cardiovascular results for 66,270 women between the ages of 36 and 56, which were included in the health study of the nurses between 2001 and 2021.
Around 12 percent stated that they had been persecuted, while a little more than five percent gave that they received an injunction.
The researchers found a clear connection between cardiovascular diseases and stalking.
Women whose medical records confirmed that heart attacks or strokes had rather reported that they were persecuted or received an injunction.
Experts believe that stalking can cause psychological stress that interfere with the nervous system, impair the correct blood vessel function and have a negative impact on other biological mechanisms.
It is known that many stressful life experiences increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases, such as the loss of a loved one or bankruptcy, but it is the first research that connects stalking.
Dr. Rebecca Lawn, a research assistant in epidemiology in Harvard, said: “Stalking is often seen as a form of violence that does not include physical contact, which makes it less serious.
“However, our results indicate that stalking should not be minimized. Stalking can be chronic, and women often report that they can make significant changes in the reaction, such as movement.
“Perhaps because it is our nature to rethink things that happen to us, which makes us experience the situation again and again.”
Dr. Harmony Reynolds, former chairman of the Clinical Cardiology & Stroke Committee for Women’s Health Sciences of the American Heart Association, added: “While this study has a more moderate risk in view of the long-term framework, it shows how the feeling of the body can also affect the mind.”
Research was published in the Journal Circulation.
