Childless women face heart risk, says study

Press, 27 November 1986, Page 32

Childless women face heart risk, says study

NZPA-Reuter Dallas Middle-aged married women who have never had children may be more likely to die of a heart attack than their peers who are mothers, medical researchers said.

Dr Evelyn Talbott, an epidemiologist at the University of Pittsburgh, said her study of fatal heart attack victims indicates childlessness may be a risk factor for women over 50 years old in addition to such other proven dangers as high blood pressure, cigarette smoking and diabetes. Dr Talbott, who presented her results at the American Heart Association convention in Dallas, studied nearly 100 Penn-

sylvania women who suffred heart attacks. Among women under the age of 50, she found no difference in the rate of fatal heart attacks between those who were mothers and those who were not. But married women over the age of 50 who died suddenly of a heart attack were “significantly” more likely to be childless, Dr Talbott found. She said it was not clear whether biological or psychological reasons account for the difference.

One possible explanation for the increased rate of cardiac deaths among the older, childless women might be the lack

of a protective female hormone that also affects fertility.

She also said societal pressure on middle-aged women in the 1940 s and 1950 s to have children might also explain the difference. “Most of these women belonged to blue-collar families and were housewives. Although some of them worked outside the home, they couldn’t be considered career women,” Dr Talbott said.

Yet another possible explanation might simply be that as the women grew older, they regretted not having children and were lonely, she said.