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Sunmin Lee, ScD, Graham Colditz, MD, DrPH, Lisa Berkman, PhD and Ichiro Kawachi, MD, PhD

Sunmin Lee, Lisa Berkman, and Ichiro Kawachi are with the Department of Society, Human Development, and Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Mass. Lisa Berkman is also with the Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health and the Harvard Center for Society and Health. Sunmin Lee, Ichiro Kawachi, and Graham Colditz are with the Channing Laboratory and the Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Harvard Center for Society and Health. Graham Colditz is with the Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health and the Harvard Center for Cancer Prevention, Boston, Mass.

Correspondence: Requests for reprints should be sent to Ichiro Kawachi, MD, PhD, Department of Health and Social Behavior, Harvard School of Public Health, 677 Huntington Ave, Boston, MA 02115 (e-mail: ichiro.kawachi{at}channing.harvard.edu).

Objectives. We examined the relationship between burden of providing care to non-ill children and grandchildren and incidence of coronary heart disease (CHD) among women.

Methods. A prospective cohort study was conducted as part of the Nurses’ Health Study among 54 412 women aged 46 to 71 years who were registered nurses. Women answered questions about their child care responsibilities.

Results. We documented 321 incident cases of CHD during 4 years of follow-up. Multivariate analyses showed that caring for non-ill children 21 hours or more per week and caring for non-ill grandchildren 9 hours or more per week (vs no caregiving) were associated with an increased risk of CHD (relative risks were 1.59 and 1.55, respectively).

Conclusions. High levels of care provision to grandchildren (and possibly children) may increase the risk of CHD among women.

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