Overview

• Women who reported being stalked had a 41% higher incidence of heart attack or stroke over 20 years compared with those who were not stalked.
• Obtaining a restraining order was associated with a 70% higher incidence of cardiovascular events in the same cohort.
• These associations persisted after adjusting for conventional cardiovascular risk factors such as lifestyle behaviors, medical conditions, depression symptoms, and history of childhood abuse.
• The analysis followed more than 66,000 mostly non-Hispanic white U.S. nurses from 2001 to 2021, among whom about 12% reported stalking, 6% obtained restraining orders, and 3% experienced new-onset cardiovascular events.
• Authors highlight limited generalizability beyond this cohort and call for research into biological stress mechanisms and for clinicians to recognize violence as a cardiovascular risk factor.