Title: The Association between Oral Contraceptives and Cardiovascular Disease: A Biomarker Analysis using Total Cholesterol, Low- Density Lipoprotein and High- Sensitivity C-Reactive Protein. 

Introduction: Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the U.S. and has several associated risk factors that increase the likelihood of developing cardiovascular health-related issues. Research on oral contraceptives has determined a significant association with cardiovascular-related concerns. Aim: This research was conducted to determine whether oral contraceptive use is related to cardiovascular disease as a surrogate of age using cardiovascular biomarkers: total cholesterol, LDL, and hs-CRP. Methods: A total of 1076 observations were analyzed from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey’s 2017-2018 dataset. General linear models between varying age groups of oral contraceptive users and biomarkers, as well as multivariate general linear models between biomarkers and covariates were conducted for this research. Results: The data analysis does not permit strong conclusions on the causal effect of oral contraceptives on the researched biomarkers. Discussion: This research found that oral contraceptive use during a woman’s lifetime does not have a relationship with cardiovascular disease, however, age and possibly alcohol and smoking do.

Chair: Dr. Ruiyan Luo