Sex-Differences in Cardiovascular Risk Factors for Incidence of Acute Myocardial Infarction and Coronary Death in the Japanese General Population

Aim: Few studies have examined the impact of sex-specified cardiovascular risk factors (CVRFs) for incidence of acute myocardial infarction and coronary death (AMI/CD) in the Japanese general population.
Methods: The incident of AMI/CD as defined by the MONICA definition in our general population (n = 24,286; age = 63 yrs) were prospectively surveyed after baseline determination for established CVRFs. The relative risk (RR) and the interaction between sexes of each CVRF were determined by the Cox regression analysis.
Results: During the mean follow up period of 8.7 years, AMI/CD was found 141 in men and 80 in women in the cohort. The RR of each CVRF in both sexes and the interaction terms between sexes derived from Cox regression models were shown in the Figure.
Conclusion: This study suggests for the first time that types of risk factors and their impact of AMI/CD incident is clearly different between sexes in the Japanese general population. In view of these, sex-specific strategies might be necessary to assess the risk of AMI/CD and to reduce the event incidence.