Oral contraceptive use and mortality after 36 years of follow-up in the Nurses' Health Study: prospective cohort study.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To determine whether use of oral contraceptives is associated with all cause and cause specific mortality.

Design

Prospective cohort study.

Setting

Nurses' Health Study, data collected between 1976 and 2012.

Population

121,701 participants were prospectively followed for 36 years; lifetime oral contraceptive use was recorded biennially from 1976 to 1982.

Main outcome measures

Overall and cause specific mortality, assessed throughout follow-up until 2012. Cox proportional hazards models were used to calculate the relative risks of all cause and cause specific mortality associated with use of oral contraceptives.

Results

In our population of 121,577 women with information on oral contraceptive use, 63,626 were never users (52%) and 57,951

SUBMITTER: Charlton BM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4216099 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature