Viola Vaccarino

Because of women's survival advantage, the impact of myocardial infarction (MI) on long-term mortality in women compared with men may be underestimated. The authors examined this issue in a community sample of 2,462 persons aged ≥65 years living in New Haven, Connecticut, who were free of MI at baseline and were followed for 10 years (1982–1992). By using proportional hazards models with MI hospitalizations and the sex-MI interaction as time-dependent covariables, survival for the MI cases from the date of MI was compared with survival of persons who, at the same follow-up time, were still alive and free of MI. Women survived longer than men mainly in the absence of MI. The multivariable-adjusted hazard ratios of death were 0.53 in the absence and 0.87 in the presence of MI, and MI was associated with a greater risk of death in women (adjusted hazard ratio = 5.9) than in men (adjusted hazard ratio = 3.6) (p = 0.01 for the sex-MI interaction). When out-of-hospital fatal infarctions were considered, the impact of MI on survival in women compared with men increased. In conclusion, in this elderly cohort, when viewed from a population perspective, MI had a greater impact on mortality in women and significantly narrowed women's typical survival advantage over men. Am J Epidemiol 2000;152:965–73.

There is conflicting information about whether short-term mortality after myocardial infarction is higher among women than among men after adjustment for age and other prognostic factors. We hypothesized that younger, but not older, women have higher mortality rates during hospitalization than their male peers. We analyzed data on 384,878 patients (155,565 women and 229,313 men) who were 30 to 89 years of age and who had been enrolled in the National Registry of Myocardial Infarction 2 between June 1994 and January 1998. Patients who had been transferred from or to other hospitals were excluded. The overall mortality rate during hospitalization was 16.7 percent among the women and 11.5 percent among the men. Sex-based differences in the rates varied according to age. Among patients less than 50 years of age, the mortality rate for the women was more than twice that for the men. The difference in the rates decreased with increasing age and was no longer significant after the age of 74 (P< 0.001 for the interaction between sex and age). Logistic-regression analysis showed that the odds of death were 11.1 percent greater for women than for men with every five-year decrease in age (95 percent confidence interval, 10.1 to 12.1 percent). Differences in medical history, the clinical severity of the infarction, and early management accounted for only about one third of the difference in the risk. After adjustment for these factors, women still had a higher risk of death for every five years of decreasing age (increase in the odds of death, 7.0 percent; 95 percent confidence interval, 5.9 to 8.1 percent). After myocardial infarction, younger women, but not older women, have higher rates of death during hospitalization than men of the same age. The younger the age of the patients, the higher the risk of death among women relative to men. Younger women with myocardial infarction represent a high-risk group deserving of special study.

STUDIES OF sex differences in mortality after myocardial infarction (MI) have consistently indicated that women have higher unadjusted mortality rates, especially for short-term follow-ups (hospitalization or first month).¹ However, data are conflicting regarding whether mortality remains higher in women after adjusting for differences in age and other prognostic factors. While in a number of studies^2-11 such adjustment resulted in a similar outcome in men and women, in other studies^12-18 it failed to account for the higher mortality rates of women.

Background: Functional disability is a common condition among elderly patients. However, to our Knowledge, its effect on outcome of myocardial infarction (MI) has not been assessed. Our objectives were to determine whether disability in the activities of daily living measured before MI is a predictor of MI severity and mortality. Methods: Disability in activities of daily living was measured prospectively in a cohort of 222 patients who were hospitalized with acute MI. Outcome measures were severity characteristics on admission to the hospital (higher Killip class, presence of new Q waves in the first electrocardiogram, and lower systolic blood pressure), and 6-month mortality. Results: Patients with disability before hospitalization were older and had more comorbidity. After adjusting for these factors and for delay in hospital arrival, disability was still significantly associated with clinical sever ity on admission to the hospital and with mortality (adjusted relative risk of death for patients with disability vs patients without disability, 2.01; 95% confidence interval, 1.23-3.28). Clinical severity and hospital treatment explained the higher mortality of patients with disability. When these factors were added to the previous model, the relative risk of mortality for patients with disability vs patients without disability was 1.24, and the 95% confidence interval was 0.73 to 2.12. Conclusions: Functional disability in activities of daily living before MI is an important predictor of clinical severity and mortality in elderly patients with MI. This effect is only minimally explained by the older age and higher comorbidity of patients with disability. However, higher clinical severity and lower use of treatment interventions are major determinants of their higher mortality compared with patients without disability. Arch Intern Med. 1997;157:2196-2204