Men Face Three-Fold Greater Risk of Sudden Cardiac Death
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Posted on Nov 24, 2009, 6 a.m.
As compared to women, middle-aged men are about three times more likely to suffer sudden cardiac death.
In that sudden cardiac death strikes about 300,000 people in the U.S. each year, Donald Lloyd-Jones, from Northwestern University (Illinois, USA), and colleagues embarked on a study to identify the lifetime risk and differences by sex and/or race. Analyzing data from the Framingham Heart Study, Cardiovascular Health Study and Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study, the team found the overall lifetime risk among 40-year-olds, the risk of sudden cardiac death was about 1 in 8 for men and 1 in 24 for women. They urge that: “These relatively high lifetime risks … should promote public health and individual efforts aimed at preventing this devastating consequence of cardiovascular disease.”
Donald M Lloyd-Jones, Jarett D Berry, Hongyan Ning, Xuan Cai, Jeffrey J Goldberger. “Lifetime Risk for Sudden Cardiac Death at Selected Index Ages and by Risk Factor Strata and Race: Cardiovascular Lifetime Risk Pooling Project” (American Heart Association 2009 Annual Meeting Abstract 969). Circulation, Nov 2009; 120: S416 - S417.
