Gender-specific risk factors for mortality associated with incident coronary heart disease—A prospective community-based study

Background. Risk factors for mortality in community-residing persons developing congestive heart failure (CHF) and acute myocardial infarction (AMI) may differ for males and females. Method. Persons from the Groningen Longitudinal Aging Study with incident CHF (N = 274) or AMI (N = 198) were identified between 1993 and 1998 and their survival status was collected in 2001. Risk factors are assessed prior to the cardiac diagnosis. Results. The 1-, 5-, 7-year survival rates were 65, 53, 50% for AMI and 74, 45, 32% for CHF. Multivariate analyses showed that male gender, high age, smoking, diabetes and low physical function were risk factors for mortality among persons with CHF. For AMI, 1 month mortality was related to high age and baseline low body mass index, while longer term mortality was related to male gender and high age. In addition, diabetes increased longer term mortality among females but not among males with AMI. Depression was not a risk factor for mortality for either condition in either gender. Conclusion. Males with CHF or AMI have worse survival rates compared to females. Risk factors for mortality are predominantly similar for males and females, except for diabetes which is a risk factor among females, but not males with AMI.