A population-based study of cardiovascular disease risk in sexual-minority women.
OBJECTIVE
We sought to determine if sexual-minority women were at greater risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD) than their heterosexual counterparts.


METHODS
We aggregated data from the 2001-2008 National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys to examine differences in CVD risk between heterosexual and sexual-minority women by using the Framingham General CVD Risk Score to calculate a ratio of vascular and chronological age. We also examined differences in the prevalence of various CVD risk factors.


RESULTS
Sexual-minority women were more likely to be current or former smokers, to report a history of drug use, to report risky drinking, and to report a family history of CVD. On average, sexual-minority women were 13.9% (95% confidence interval [CI] = 8.5%, 19.3%) older in vascular terms than their chronological age, which was 5.7% (95% CI = 1.5%, 9.8%) greater than that of their heterosexual counterparts. Family history of CVD and history of drug use were unrelated to increased CVD risk, and this risk was not fully explained by either risky drinking or smoking.


CONCLUSIONS
Sexual-minority women are at increased risk for CVD compared with heterosexual women.
Grant W. Farmer is with the Department of Epidemiology, Saint Louis University School of Public Health, St. Louis, MO. Jennifer M. Jabson and Deborah J. Bowen are with the Department of Community Health Sciences, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, MA. Kathleen K. Bucholz is with the Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis.
Grant W
GW
Farmer
Jennifer M
JM
Jabson
Kathleen K
KK
Bucholz
Deborah J
DJ
Bowen
D000328:Adult; D001727:Bisexuality; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000209:etiology*; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006306:Health Surveys; D018452:Homosexuality, Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D008913:Minority Groups; D016017:Odds Ratio; D011159:Population Surveillance; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000379:methods; D014481:United States; D055815:Young Adult