JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Although men are more prone to developing cardiovascular diseases (CVD) than women, risk factors for CVD such as smoking, and diabetes mellitus have shown to be more detrimental in women than in men. With a structured approach, we pinpoint comorbidities of CVD which are more connected to CVD in either men or women.

Objective:

N/A

Methods:

Based on a population-wide medical claims dataset comprising 44 million records of inpatient stays in Austria from 2003 to 2014, we determine comorbidities of acute myocardial infarction (AMI, ICD10 code I21) and chronic ischemic heart disease (CHD, I25) with a significantly different prevalence in men and women.

Results:

Except for lipid metabolism disorders (ORf =6.68, 95% CI 6.57-6.79, ORm =8.31, 95% CI 8.21-8.41), all identified comorbidities were more likely to be associated with AMI and CHD in women than men: nicotine dependence (odds ratio for females ORf = 6.16, 95% CI 5.96-6.36, odds ratio for males ORm = 4.43, 95% CI 4.35-4.5), diabetes mellitus (ORf =3.52, 95% CI 3.45-3.59, ORm =3.13, 95% CI 3.07-3.19), obesity (ORf =3.64, 95% CI 3.56-3.72, ORm =3.33, 95% CI 3.27-3.39), renal disorders (ORf =4.27, 95% CI 4.11-4.44, ORm =3.74, 95% CI 3.67-3.81), asthma (ORf =2.09, 95% CI 1.96-2.23, ORm =1.59, 95% CI 1.5-1.68), COPD (ORf =3.72, 95% CI 3.62-3.81, ORm =2.18, 95% CI 2.79-2.89),etc. Similar results can be observed in AMI.

Conclusions:

Although AMI and CHD are more prevalent in men, women appear to be more affected by certain comorbidities of AMI and CHD in their risk to develop CVD.