Purpose: To examine the prevalence of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) among breast cancer (BC) survivors.
Design: Cross-sectional observational study using the data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2003-2018.
Setting: United States (US).
Subjects: A nationally representative sample of US women with a history of BC.
Measures: Self-reported CVD status (i.e., coronary artery disease (CAD), heart failure, and stroke) and time of the CVD diagnosis were used to categorize BC survivors into three groups: No CVD, preexisting CVD, and post-acquired CVD after BC diagnosis.
Analysis: The prevalence of CVD among BC survivors were estimated by demographic characteristics. Complex sampling design of the NHANES was accounted to estimate the population-level prevalence.
Results: A total of 658 BC survivors were identified, representing 3.01% (≈3.4 million) of the US women aged ≥18 years old. Of those, ≈6% (≈.2 million) had preexisting CVD and ≈11% (≈.4 million) had at least one CVD diagnosed after BC diagnosis, with an average time elapsed ranging from ≈5 years for heart failure to ≈9 years for CAD and stroke. The prevalence of CVD among BC survivors differed by demographic characteristics including age, education, marital status, menopausal, and physical activity levels.
Conclusion: Our findings suggest that BC survivors are at risk of suffering from CVD and public health strategies for the long-term management of CVD risk factors in this vulnerable population group is recommended.
Keywords: cancer survivorship; cardiotoxic; coronary artery disease; physical activity.