• Posted August 11, 2025

Stalking Victims At Higher Risk For Future Heart Problems

Victims of stalkers appear to have an increased risk of heart disease, a new study says.

Women who had been stalked or had obtained a restraining order were more likely to develop heart problems later in life, researchers reported in the journal Circulation.

“Stalking is often seen as a form of violence that does not involve physical contact, which may make it seem less serious,” said lead researcher Rebecca Lawn, a research associate in epidemiology at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston.

“However, our findings suggest stalking should not be minimized,” she added in a news release.

For the study, researchers tracked the health of more than 66,000 women recruited into a large-scale health study in 2001 at an average age of 46.

Of the participants, 7,700 reported themselves as victims of stalking and nearly 3,700 had to get a restraining order to protect them from harassment.

Women who reported being stalked had 41% greater odds of developing heart disease, compared to those who hadn’t been stalked, results show.

Those who got a restraining order were 70% more likely to have heart disease, researchers found.

Women who had a history of both being stalked and getting a restraining order had the highest observed level of heart disease risk – double that of women who not had either traumatic experience.

Further, women who suffered heart attacks or strokes in the years since their incidents were more likely to have reported being stalked or getting a restraining order, the study says.

Researchers said the link between heart health and stalking might be explained by the psychological distress caused by being menaced and threatened. Such stress can trigger a person’s “fight or flight” response, causing disruption in heart and blood pressure function as well as other health problems.

Dr. Harmony Reynolds, immediate past chair of the American Heart Association’s Clinical Cardiology & Stroke Women’s Health Science Committee, said the effects of such stress can be long-lasting.

“Perhaps because it is our nature to re-think about things that happen to us, making us experience the situation over and over,” Reynolds, director of the Sarah Ross Soter Center for Women’s Cardiovascular Research at NYU Grossman School of Medicine in New York City, said in a news release.

“However, social support may mitigate the effects of stress,” said Reynolds, who was not involved in the research. “It’s helpful to have people you can trust to talk with, whether they are family, friends, people in the community or professionals.”

Reynolds noted that it’s already known that people subjected to intimate partner violence have a 30% higher risk of heart disease.

“While this study shows a more moderate risk, given the long time frame, it highlights how feeling unsafe can affect the body, in addition to the mind,” Reynolds said. “A variety of stressful life experiences are known to increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, including adverse childhood experiences, financial stressors, grief and other experiences.”

More information

The Cleveland Clinic has more on stress and heart disease.

SOURCE: American Heart Association, news release, Aug. 11, 2025