Heart attacks more common but less fatal in women

3 November 2009

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Heart attacks appear to have become more common in middle-aged women over the past two decades, but all women and especially those younger than 55 have recently experienced a greater increase than men in their chances of survival following such a heart event, according to two reports in the 26 October issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Middle-aged women have historically had a lower overall risk of heart events and stroke than men of a similar age, according to background information in one of the articles. However, a recent report showing higher stroke rates among women than men in a sample representative of the US population appeared to reveal a new phenomenon and raised the question of whether heart disease or heart attack were also becoming more prevalent among women.

Amytis Towfighi, MD, of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, and colleagues analyzed data from US adults age 35 to 54 who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (nationally representative surveys conducted by the government) during 1988 to 1994 (4,326 participants) and 1999 to 2004 (4,075 participants). The researchers assessed how often men and women had heart attacks and also compared their Framingham coronary risk score, a measurement of heart disease risk over 10 years that includes factors such as age, cholesterol levels, blood pressure and smoking history.

In both study periods, men age 35 to 54 years had more heart attacks than women in the same age group. However, the gap narrowed in more recent years as heart attacks decreased in prevalence among men and increased in prevalence among women (2.5 percent of men and 0.7 percent of women reported a history of heart attack in 1988-1994, whereas 2.2 percent of men and 1 percent of women did so in 1999-2004).

Between the two time periods, the average Framingham coronary risk score showed an improving trend among men but decreased among women. In male participants, total cholesterol levels remained stable, high-density lipoprotein (HDL or "good" cholesterol) levels and systolic (top number) blood pressure levels improved and smoking levels declined. The only risk factor that improved among women was HDL levels. Diabetes prevalence increased among both men and women, likely due to insulin resistance and the obesity epidemic in both sexes.

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