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Asthmatic Women at Greater Risk of CHD Than Men

Posted on: Friday, 29 October 2004, 03:00 CDT

Asthma might be an independent risk factor for the development of coronary heart dis ease (CHD) in women, according to researchers from the United States.

Inflammation plays a role in the pathogenesis of atherothrombosis. Because of the inflammatory nature of asthma, there might be a link between asthma and CHD. The researchers undertook a cohort study among 70,573 women and 81,575 men aged 18 to 85 at enrolment. Asthma was ascertained by self report at baseline and/or interim hospitalisation for asthma during follow up.

After a median follow up of 27 years and adjusting for age, race and ethnicity, education level, smoking, alcohol consumption, body mass index, serum cholesterol, white blood count, hypertension and diabetes, asthma was associated with a 1.22-fold increased hazard of CHD among women.

This association was in women who had never smoked, those who had ever smoked and in younger and older women. In contrast, asthma was not associated with CHD among men (adjusted hazard ratio 0.99). The authors say that further research is warranted to confirm or refute these epidemiological findings.

Iribarren C et al (2004) Are patients with asthma at increased risk of coronary heart disease? International Journal of Epidemiology. 33, 4, 743-748.

Copyright RCN Publishing Company Ltd. Oct 13-Oct 19, 2004

Source: Nursing Standard

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