Women who experienced stalking have higher heart disease risk, study finds
Dr. Ramneek Dosanjh got married young. But before long, she says her marriage dissolved into a cycle of control and domestic violence.
"Within a week of meeting and dating, tells you they love you and they will marry you, you know, it all seems dreamy," Dosanjh told CBS News.
It got worse, she says, when she tried to leave.
"You just don't know if you can sustain living that way," said Dosanjh, who then chose to get an order of protection against her then-husband.
The toll on her health started to show. "I had abnormal stress tests," Dosanjh said. "I had to have a cardiac catheterization."
And she's not alone according to a study released last month by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
"We saw this association, which frankly also blew me away," said Dr. Karestan Koenen, who led a team of Harvard researchers who analyzed data for about 66,270 American nurses, ages 36 to 56, who were surveyed about their own health for 20 years between 2001 and 2021.
Of those in the survey, 11.7% reported experience with stalking, and 5.6% reported experience with obtaining a restraining order.
The study, published in the scientific journal Circulation, found that the risk for cardiovascular disease was 41% higher in women who had experienced stalking — and 70% higher for women who had obtained a restraining order — compared to those who had not.
"We have all the information on their diet and exercise," Koenen said. "And we find that it's really the stalking that increases the risk, not all these other factors, because we can adjust for them."
"Experiences of stalking and obtaining a restraining order are both associated with an increased risk of developing CVD (cardiovascular disease) in women," the study concluded. "Common experiences of violence among women may affect cardiovascular health and warrant consideration alongside more traditional risk factors."
Many of the women that CBS News talked to were afraid to disclose their identities. One of them says she and her children were abused by their father.
"I had three recurring episodes of deep vein thrombosis, which means another three blood clots in a short amount of time," the woman told CBS News.
According to a 2016-2017 survey from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly one in three women have experienced stalking at some point in their lives.
Researchers say the results of the study could spur doctors to add questions about stalking and restraining orders when screening for heart health risk factors in the future.
Said Koenen, "The ultimate goal is to improve women's health."
For anonymous, confidential help, people can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 or 1-800-787-3224. People can text START to 88788 or chat on TheHotline.org.
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