Exposure to Violence and Carotid Artery Intima‐Media Thickness in Mexican Women

Abstract

BackgroundViolence against women has become a global public health threat. Data on the potential impact of exposure to violence on cardiovascular disease are scarce.Methods and ResultsWe evaluated the association between exposure to violence and subclinical cardiovascular disease in 634 disease‐free women from the Mexican Teachers' Cohort who responded to violence‐related items from the Life Stressor Checklist and underwent measures of carotid artery intima‐media thickness in 2012 and 2013. We defined exposure to violence as having ever been exposed to physical and/or sexual violence. Intima‐media thickness was log‐transformed, and subclinical carotid atherosclerosis was defined as intima‐media thickness ≥0.8 mm or plaque. We used multivariable linear and logistic regression models adjusted for several potential confounders. Mean age was 48.9±4.3 years. Close to 40% of women reported past exposure to violence. The lifetime prevalence of sexual violence was 7.1%, and prevalence of physical violence was 23.5% (7.7% reported both sexual and physical violence). Relative to women with no history of violence, exposure to violence was associated with higher intima‐media thickness (adjusted mean percentage difference=2.4%; 95% confidence interval 0.5, 4.3) and subclinical atherosclerosis (adjusted odds ratio=1.60; 95% confidence interval 1.10, 2.32). The association was stronger for exposure to physical violence, especially by mugging or physical assault by a stranger (adjusted mean % difference=4.6%; 95% confidence interval 1.8, 7.5, and odds ratio of subclinical carotid atherosclerosis=2.06; 95% confidence interval 1.22, 3.49).ConclusionsExposure to violence, and in particular assault by a stranger, was strongly associated with subclinical cardiovascular disease in Mexican middle‐aged women.

Low carotid wall shear stress independently accelerates the progression of cognitive impairment and white matter lesions in the elderly

“…Parameters of CCA were separately measured offline by two raters who blinded to the clinical data with the kappa value of 0.87. CCA intima-media thickness was assessed and a plaque was defined as an intima-media thickness > 1.5 mm [ 32 ]. Internal diameters (ID) of the CCA was defined as the distance between the leading edge of initma-lumen interface of the near wall and the leading edge of the lumen-intima interface of the far wall.…”

Violencia hacia la mujer y su impacto en la salud

“…Como se mencionó previamente, diversas investigaciones han correlacionado la violencia contra la mujer con el desarrollo de diversas enfermedades, como cáncer, enfermedades cardiometabólicas y mentales, así como dolor crónico, problemas digestivos, obesidad y otras. En la tabla 1 [25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32] se resumen los estudios que han relacionado diversos tipos de violencia contra la mujer y sus principales efectos en la salud.…”

Sexual Violence and Risk of Hypertension in Women in the Nurses’ Health Study II: A 7‐Year Prospective Analysis

“…3 , 4 Evidence is emerging that sexual violence may be an important risk factor, not only for mental health problems, but also for multiple physical health problems, including CVD. 3 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 Most studies examining sexual violence in relationship to cardiovascular health have focused specifically on intimate partner violence 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 or abuse in childhood 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 which, although important, do not capture the full scope of women’s experiences of sexual violence. For example, sexual assault occurs within and outside of established partnerships, and sexual harassment takes place in work settings, and may or may not involve physical contact.…”