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March 16, 2001Volume 29, Number 22



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Women under 60 more likely to
die after heart attack, says study

Women under the age of 60 have a higher risk of dying than men under 60 in the two years after they suffer a heart attack, a study by a Yale researcher and his collaborators shows.

These sex-based differences in mortality rates are independent of the severity of the heart attack and other health problems, the authors say in the article published in a recent issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine.

"Non-biological factors may be implicated," write the researchers, who included Dr. Harlan Krumholz of Yale. "These factors include behavioral, psychosocial and social factors such as continuing to smoke, social isolation, emotional stress and depression that may adversely impact women more than men and influence their survival rates following a heart attack."

The study looked at 6,826 patients at 16 community hospitals serving the Worcester, Massachusetts, area who were hospitalized with myocardial infarction between 1975 and 1995. Their outcomes were measured two years after they were discharged from the hospital.

The overall two-year mortality rate was higher in women, 28.9%, than in men, 19.6%. When patients were examined by age group, only women younger than 60 years old had a higher mortality rate than men of similar age.

Krumholz, an associate professor of internal medicine and cardiology at the School of Medicine, says the researchers were unable to determine why the younger women had a worse outcome. Interestingly, he added, the same study showed that men over the age of 79 had a higher mortality rate than women two years following a heart attack.

"The findings do indicate how important it is that women who have heart attacks receive comprehensive evaluation and treatment for all of the risk factors to avoid a future event," Krumholz says.

He says the study builds on earlier research at Yale showing that younger women have a higher rate of mortality during hospitalization for a heart attack compared with men of comparable age.

"In this study we looked at how the men and women would do over the two years following a heart attack among those who survived the initial hospitalization. There was some expectation that women would do better because we thought that those who survived the hospitalization may have been healthier than the men since fewer women made it out of the hospital in the first place. The next challenge is to understand why these differences exist and if there is anything we can do to reduce risk for younger women," Krumholz says.

The lead author of the study was Dr. Viola Vaccarino, formerly of Yale and now at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta. In addition to Krumholz, co-authors included Dr. Jorge Yarzebski, Dr. Joel Gore and Robert Goldberg, all of the University of Massachusetts Medical Center in Worcester.

-- By Jacqueline Weaver


T H I SW E E K ' SS T O R I E S

Economist will develop better way to measure economic activity in U.S.

Yale SOM to establish database for study of world's financial history

F&ES to create industrial ecology program in Asia

Greene and Brisman awarded DeVane Medals

Professor Lane explains the economics of happiness

Scientist Thomas Steitz honored with Sterling Professorship

Goldman-Rakic is Eugene Higgins Professor of Neurobiology

Joan Steitz cited as outstanding woman scientist

Student actors 'take flight' in comic version of 'The Birds'

Exhibition examines photographers' contrasting images of Saarinen designs

'Faces of Hope' offers portraits of people living with HIV

Model urges students to take pride in their bodies

'Cities and Buildings' pays tribute to urban works . . .

Forum to explore fate of U.S. 'melting pot'

Discovery boosts understanding of hereditary blindness

Grants will support Yale researcher's study on how to quell the 'voices' . . .

Women under 60 more likely to die after heart attack, says study

Renowned nuclear physicist to discuss 'Science, Technology and Politics'

'A Taste of Inequality' explores issues still on feminist frontline

Love songs will be dramatized in workshops

New fund will support activities for teachers of religious studies

New ways of funding environmental enterprises to be examined

Film series focus on the banned and Brazilian

Innovation is focus of this year's Spring Teaching Forum

Annual Pride Week celebration will feature talks, comedy night and film

Campus Notes



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