MUNICH—Women who smoke tend to have their first acute MI considerably earlier in life than do male smokers.
This observation in a Norwegian case-control study suggests that smoking increases the risk of cardiovascular disease to a relatively greater degree in women than in men, Dr. Morten Grundtvig said at the annual congress of the European Society of Cardiology.
Indeed, the Norwegian data indicate women smokers lose more than twice as many years of good health, compared with men who smoke, added Dr. Grundtvig of Innlandet Hospital, Lillehammer, Norway.
He reported on 1,784 consecutive patients, of whom 38% were women, who presented to the hospital with a first MI during 1998–2005. Overall, 39% of the men and 23% of the women were current smokers.
Among 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. The age differential was far greater among the women; the first MI occurred at age 66.2 years in current smokers, 74.4 years in ex-smokers, and 80.7 years in nonsmokers.
In other words, smoking women experienced their first MI 14.5 years prematurely, while men who smoked 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, according to Dr. Grundtvig.