CARDIOVASCULAR RISK PROFILES OF ORAL-CONTRACEPTIVE USERS AND NONUSERS- A POPULATION-BASED STUDY

Background. The purpose of this population-based study was to evaluate whether women taking oral contraceptive products (OCPs) have more fav orable cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk profiles than women not takin g OCPs. Methods. Data including sociodemographic variables and CVD ris k factors from 5,239 women of reproductive age were gathered in six cr oss-sectional household surveys. Differences in CVD risk factor profil es between OCP users and nonusers were compared using logistic regress ion. Younger users and older users were compared with nonusers of the same age groups. Results. Women using OCPs (n = 807) were younger and had higher socioeconomic status than nonusers (n = 4,432). More users than nonusers were current smokers (43.1% vs 36.6%, P = 0.0011), had a total serum cholesterol level greater than or equal to 240 mg/dl (12. 7% vs 6.0%, P = 0.0001), and tended to rate themselves to be at low ri sk for CVD (48.3% vs 45.5%, P = 0.17). Fewer OCP users than nonusers h ad an HDL cholesterol level less than or equal to 35 mg/dl (4.0% vs 6. 9%, P = 0.0039). Conclusions. Although they tended to perceive themsel ves to be at low risk, women taking OCPs in this study had worse CVD r isk profiles than women not reporting hormonal contraception and are c andidates for cardiovascular risk reduction strategies. (C) 1995 Acade mic Press, Inc.