Women who survive domestic abuse are more likely to suffer from heart disease, diabetes, and “all-cause mortality,” which refers to death from any cause, a study has revealed. Researchers found that women in the U.K. who lived through domestic abuse were 31 percent more likely to develop heart disease, and had a 51 percent higher chance of having type 2 diabetes. The participants also had a 44 percent higher risk of dying from any cause. The authors of the study examined data from the medical records of tens of thousands of women in the U.K. who visited doctors between Jan. 1, 1995 and Dec. 1, 2017. They matched the data of 18,547 women who had experienced domestic abuse by age and lifestyle with women who had not suffered from domestic violence.

Domestic abuse was defined as “any incident or patterns of incidents of controlling, coercive, threatening behavior, violence or abuse between those aged 16 or over who are, or have been, intimate partners or family members regardless of gender or sexuality.” Domestic abuse victims were more likely to drink, at 10.1 percent compared to 3.5 percent in the other group.