(HealthDay)—Higher levels of stressful life events are associated with a higher risk for coronary heart disease (CHD) among postmenopausal women with type 2 diabetes, according to a study published online June 4 in Diabetes Care.

Junmei Miao Jonasson, Ph.D., from University of Gothenburg in Sweden, and colleagues used data from the Women's Health Initiative to identify 5,262 postmenopausal women with type 2 diabetes at baseline. Associations between social support, social network size, social strain, or stressful life events and risk for CHD were assessed.

The researchers found that during 12.79 years of follow-up, there were 672 cases of CHD. There was a significant linear trend toward a higher risk for CHD with an increasing number of stressful life events (hazard ratio for the third versus the first quartile, 1.27; hazard ratio for the fourth versus the first quartile, 1.30). There was a decreased risk for CHD among women who were married or in an intimate relationship (hazard ratio, 0.82).

"Among postmenopausal women with type 2 diabetes, higher levels of stressful life events were associated with higher risk of CHD," the authors write. "Experience of stressful life events might be considered as a risk factor for CHD among women with type 2 diabetes."

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