Women’s Health Initiative (WHI)
What is the goal of the WHI?
The Women's Health Initiative (WHI), sponsored by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), is a long-term national health study that focuses on strategies for preventing heart disease, breast and colorectal cancer, and osteoporosis in postmenopausal women. These chronic diseases are the major causes of death, disability, and frailty in older women of all races and backgrounds.
The original WHI study had three parts—a clinical trial, an observational study, and a community prevention study—and completed data collection in 2005. The WHI continues to contribute to the science of women’s health through extension and ancillary studies. The WHI is the largest women’s health prevention study ever conducted.
WHI beyond the original study
The initiative’s extension studies collect long-term data from 52,068 WHI volunteers to complement the original WHI study. The current extension study collects annual health information from WHI volunteers who agree to take part through 2026, with a focus on heart disease, cardiovascular events, and aging.
Ancillary studies, on the other hand, are separate research projects that reach out to and enroll WHI volunteers.
- The Long Life Study (LLS) includes a subset of 7,875 people who will have clinical measurements and donate samples (biospecimens) with a 10-year follow-up assessment.
- The Women’s Health Initiative Strong and Healthy Study (WHISH) looks at the health benefits of a physical activity program for older women;
- The Objective Physical Activity and Cardiovascular Health Study (OPACH) used wearable devices to measure how physical activity impacts cardiovascular health in older women.
- The Women's Health Initiative Sleep Hypoxia Effects on Resilience (WHISPER) studies whether sleep-disordered breathing such as sleep apnea and the low levels of oxygen in the blood that are caused by it are related to more risk of diseases such as heart attack, stroke, heart failure, cancer, and cognitive decline.
AT A GLANCE
- The WHI is one of the largest women's health projects ever launched in the United States, with more than 161,000 women enrolled at 40 clinical centers.
- The WHI randomized controlled clinical trial enrolled more than 68,000 postmenopausal women between the ages of 50 and 79.
- The WHI observational study tracked medical histories and health habits of more than 93,000 women to add information that complements the clinical trial.
- The WHI found that hormone replacement therapy did not prevent heart disease in post-menopausal women as was once thought.
- • The WHI hormone trials added important information that helped save about $35.2 billion in direct medical costs in the United States.
How does the WHI contribute to scientific discoveries?
The Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) and its findings have changed women’s health and how medicine is practiced around the world. Information from the WHI helps women and their healthcare providers make more informed decisions, particularly about the use of hormone therapy after menopause.
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Women’s Health Initiative (WHI)
How was the WHI conducted?
The original Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) study included a clinical trial, an observational study, and a community prevention study. The clinical trial and observation study were conducted at 40 clinical centers nationwide and enrolled more than 161,000 women. A coordinating center at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center managed data collection and analysis. The community prevention study was conducted at eight university-based centers.
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Women’s Health Initiative (WHI)
FEATURE
The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute honors the pioneering women who participated in the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI)—one of the largest women’s health projects ever launched in the United States—for their critically important contributions to advancing women’s health.