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Abstract
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Between 2012 and 2015, years before the Time’s Up and Me Too movements galvanized countless women to come forward with accounts of sexual harassment and assault, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh asked a group of midlife female study participants if they had ever experienced these traumas.
The questions might have seemed out of place to some: The researchers, led by Rebecca Thurston, PhD, were investigating the association between menopausal symptoms—specifically hot flashes—and early signs of atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries, a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Why ask about harassment and assault in a study about heart health?
To Thurston, a professor of psychiatry, psychology, and epidemiology, including the questions made sense. Thurston has long been interested in how gender-based power inequities influence women’s health. Sexual harassment in the workplace and sexual assault are an “expression of this power dynamic,” she said.
Thurston heads the Women’s Biobehavioral Health Laboratory at Pitt, where one line of research is devoted to psychosocial factors in women’s cardiovascular disease. She knew that traumatic events such as sexual harassment and assault are potent stressors, and she suspected that they could have some bearing on women’s cardiac health.
A post hoc analysis of the study of midlife women recently published in JAMA Internal Medicine suggests that she was right. Women who reported a history of sexual harassment or sexual assault had poorer specific physical and mental health outcomes than those who didn’t.
Unlike previous studies that have looked at similar associations, this one considered both sexual harassment and sexual assault and included objective measures of physical health rather than relying exclusively on self-reported outcomes.
Thurston acknowledged that the study can’t prove causality. But the data do suggest that there could be long-lasting health effects of these experiences ...
Language: en |