Scand J Public Health. 2006;34(1):11-6.
Use of oral contraceptives and mortality during 14 years' follow-up of Norwegian women.
Graff-Iversen S, Hammar N, Thelle DS, Tonstad S.
Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway. sidsel.graff-iversen@fhi.no
Aims:
The aim was to evaluate total and cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality in relation to use of oral contraceptives (OC) in a cohort of women with a relatively high prevalence of smoking and high serum lipid levels.
Methods:
In all 29,053 women aged 20-49 years were invited to a health survey in 1985-88. Of the total 82% attended and 20,282 women free of known CVD were included in this analysis. The relative risk (RR) of mortality during 14 years of follow-up was compared between OC users and non-users by means of proportional hazards regression.
Results:
About 50% of 827 OC users were daily cigarette smokers, and the mean total cholesterol level in the cohort was 5.9 mmol/l. There were 518 deaths, of which 10 occurred among the women taking OC at baseline. Of three deaths from CVD among OC users, two occurred in the first year of follow-up. Among non-smokers using OC three women died during the follow-up; none of the deaths was due to CVD. Women using OC of any type had no different adjusted total mortality (RR 0.87; 95% CI 0.46-1.65) or CVD mortality (RR 1.41; 95% CI 0.44-4.56) compared with non-users.
Conclusions:
The results were consistent with previous evidence which does not indicate that mortality from all causes or CVD is elevated in women using OC.
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- 1 What is an oral contraceptive?
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- 3 What are the benefits of the combined oral contraceptive pill?
- 4 Will the combined oral contraceptive pill improve my periods?
- 5 Could the combined oral contraceptive pill change my libido (sex drive)
- 6 What are the risks of taking combined oral contraceptive pills?
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- 10 Does the combined oral contraceptive pill increase the chance of pelvic infections?
- 11 What is the relationship between the combined oral contraceptive pill and fibroids?
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- 14 What is the relationship between the combined oral contraceptive pill and thromboembolism?
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- 17 Does the combined oral contraceptive pill affect the breasts?
- 18 Could I feel depressed as a result of taking the combined oral contraceptive pill?
- 19 What is the relationship between the combined oral contraceptive pill and cancer of the ovary?
- 20 What is the relationship between the combined oral contraceptive pill and cancer of the uterus?
- 21 What is the relationship between the combined oral contraceptive pill and cancer of the cervix?
- 22 What is the relationship between the combined oral contraceptive pill and cancer of the breast?
- 23 Family Planning Support Groups.
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