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Women fast catching up with men on risks of sudden death after heart attack
November 18, 2002Women are fast catching up with men when it comes to risk of sudden death after a heart attack, reveals research in Heart.
Sudden cardiac death is defined as death within an hour of the start of symptoms in someone who has had no previous signs of a potentially fatal illness.
Sudden cardiac death accounts for 60% of all heart deaths in the USA - around 400,000 every year - but it has always been thought that women have around half the risk of men.
Over two years, Danish researchers monitored the progress of almost 6000 people who had had a heart attack. Their ages ranged from under 56 to over 76.
During that time 536 people died a sudden cardiac death and 725 died other heart deaths. The risk of death in both groups was highest among older age groups. But younger people were more at risk of sudden cardiac death than other heart deaths. The prevalence of sudden cardiac death was just under 5% in the youngest age band compared with 3.5% for other heart deaths.
Overall, men were at higher risk (34%), but the risk for women older than 66 was more than 10%. And an accompanying editorial points out that the study shows that men were only 1.3 times more likely to die a sudden cardiac death than women.
“It is clear that in the area of [sudden cardiac death] risk women are rapidly achieving equality with men,” write the researchers from the US Krannert Institute of Cardiology, Indiana, highlighting US research which shows a 21% increase in risk among young women between 1989 and 1998.
They say that the Danish study supports a growing body of evidence that women are increasingly at higher risk of poorer survival after a heart attack than men.
“We already know that women have a higher in-hospital mortality rate after myocardial infarction than men, with the greatest inequality observed in younger women,” they write.
“What is not clear is what (if anything) we as medical providers can do to curb this disturbing development,’ they conclude.
British Medical Journal (BMJ)
Over two years, Danish researchers monitored the progress of almost 6000 people who had had a heart attack. Their ages ranged from under 56 to over 76.
During that time 536 people died a sudden cardiac death and 725 died other heart deaths. The risk of death in both groups was highest among older age groups. But younger people were more at risk of sudden cardiac death than other heart deaths. The prevalence of sudden cardiac death was just under 5% in the youngest age band compared with 3.5% for other heart deaths.
Overall, men were at higher risk (34%), but the risk for women older than 66 was more than 10%. And an accompanying editorial points out that the study shows that men were only 1.3 times more likely to die a sudden cardiac death than women.
“It is clear that in the area of [sudden cardiac death] risk women are rapidly achieving equality with men,” write the researchers from the US Krannert Institute of Cardiology, Indiana, highlighting US research which shows a 21% increase in risk among young women between 1989 and 1998.
They say that the Danish study supports a growing body of evidence that women are increasingly at higher risk of poorer survival after a heart attack than men.
“We already know that women have a higher in-hospital mortality rate after myocardial infarction than men, with the greatest inequality observed in younger women,” they write.
“What is not clear is what (if anything) we as medical providers can do to curb this disturbing development,’ they conclude.
British Medical Journal (BMJ)
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