Post-traumatic Stress Disorder is Tied to IHD in women Veterans: Study
Ischemic heart disease (IHD) is the leading cause of death in women around the world despite the advancements in prevention and treatment.
A recent study suggests that Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is associated with an increased risk of developing incident ischemic heart disease (IHD) among women veterans. The research has been published in the JAMA Cardiology on March 17, 2021.
Although women are twice as likely to develop PTSD as are men, and it is even more likely in female veterans, much of the research has predominately been on male veterans. Women veterans represent a growing yet understudied, population with high levels of trauma exposure and unique cardiovascular risks, but research on PTSD and IHD in this group is lacking. Therefore, Dr Ramin Ebrahimi and his team conducted a study to determine whether PTSD is associated with incident IHD in women veterans.
It was a retrospective, longitudinal cohort study of the national Veterans Health Administration (VHA) electronic medical records, with a priori hypothesis that PTSD would be associated with a greater risk of IHD onset. The researchers included a total of 398 769 women veterans, 132 923 with PTSD and 265 846 never diagnosed with PTSD in the analysis. The major outcome assessed was Incident IHD, defined as new-onset coronary artery disease, angina, or myocardial infarction, based on ICD-9 and ICD-10 diagnosis codes from inpatient or outpatient encounters, and/or coronary interventions based on Current Procedural Terminology codes.
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