Cocaine and the Long-Term Risk of Cardiovascular Disease in Women

Cocaine is associated with acute cardiovascular complications, but the long-term cardiovascular risks of cocaine use are poorly understood. We examined the association between cocaine use disorders and long-term cardiovascular morbidity in women.

We analyzed a longitudinal cohort of 1,296,463 women in Quebec, Canada between 1989 and 2020. The exposure included cocaine use disorders prior to or during pregnancy. The outcome was cardiovascular hospitalization up to 31 years later. We used adjusted Cox regression models to estimate hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for the association of cocaine use disorders with cardiovascular hospitalization.

The cohort included 2954 women with cocaine use disorders. Compared with women without an identified cocaine disorder, women with cocaine use disorders had 1.55 times greater risk of future cardiovascular hospitalization during 3 decades of follow-up (95% CI, 1.37-1.75). Cocaine use disorders were strongly associated with inflammatory heart disease (HR 4.82; 95% CI, 2.97-7.83), cardiac arrest (HR 2.93; 95% CI, 1.46-5.88), valve disease (HR 3.09; 95% CI, 2.11-4.51), and arterial embolism (HR 2.22; 95% CI, 1.19-4.14). The association between cocaine use disorder and cardiovascular hospitalization was most marked after 5 to 10 years of follow-up (HR 2.15; 95% CI, 1.70-2.72).

Women with cocaine use disorders have a high risk of cardiovascular hospitalization up to 3 decades later. Substance use reduction and cardiovascular risk surveillance may help reduce the burden of cardiovascular disease in women with cocaine use disorders.