MUNICH — Women who smoke tend to have their first acute MI considerably earlier in life than do male smokers.
This observation in a case-control study suggests smoking increases the risk of cardiovascular disease to a relatively greater degree in women than in men, Dr. Morten Grundtvig of Innlandet Hospital, Lillehammer, Norway, said at the annual congress of the European Society of Cardiology. The data showed that women smokers lose more than twice as many years of good health, compared with men smokers.
He reported on 1,784 consecutive patients (38% women) who presented to the hospital with a first MI during 1998–2005. Of these, 39% of men and 23% of women were current smokers. In the men, the average age at which the first MI occurred was 63.9 years in current smokers, 74.7 years in ex-smokers, and 72.2 years in nonsmokers. In women, the corresponding ages for first MI were 66.2 years, 74.4 years, and 80.7 years, respectively. Women smokers had their first MI 14.5 years prematurely; men smokers had their first MI 8.3 years prematurely.
After adjustment for differences in hypertension, diabetes, and other cardiovascular risk factors, 13.7 years of the age difference between women with an MI who smoked and those who never smoked were attributed to smoking. In men, the adjusted difference was 6.2 years.