Caregiving raises risk in women.(coronary heart disease risk increased in women caregivers)

2003 MAR 6 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Women who spend 9 or more hours a week caring for an ill or disabled spouse have an increased risk of coronary heart disease, according to a new study.

The study shows, however, that providing care for a disabled or ill parent, sibling, or other individual did not significantly increase the risk of heart disease, suggesting that the caregiving commitment in these cases may have been less burdensome or less intense.

"Although many caregivers describe their work in rewarding terms, an increasing number of studies have begun to suggest health risks," said Ichiro Kawachi, MD, PhD, of the Harvard School of Public Health and colleagues.

The study was published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Kawachi and colleagues collected data on caregiving and coronary heart disease from 1992 to 1996 for 54,412 women enrolled in a long-term nurses' study. The women were 46-71 years old with no prior history of heart disease. During the study period, the researchers documented 321 cases of nonfatal and fatal coronary heart disease among the nurses.

Questionnaires filled out by the nurses tracked how many hours each woman spent in caregiving activities each week and asked them to rate how stressful or rewarding their caregiving experiences were.

After adjusting for other factors such as age, body mass, exercise, smoking and saturated fat intake and a history of high blood pressure or diabetes, the researchers found that the risk of ...