Women Smokers and Sudden Death

Abstract

A retrospective autopsy study was made of the smoking habits of women who died suddenly and unexpectedly of a first clinical episode of coronary heart disease (CHD). A close correlation between heavy cigarette smoking and sudden CHD deaths was found. In the sudden deaths from causes other than CHD, only 28% of the women were heavy smokers, whereas in the CHD sudden deaths there were 62%. The mean age at the time of sudden death was 19 years less for those who smoked cigarettes heavily than for the nonsmokers, while the mean age at death for lighter smokers was intermediate. During the period 1949 to 1959, there were 12 CHD sudden deaths in men for every similar death in women. In contrast, there were only four CHD sudden deaths in men for every similar death in 1967 through 1971 among women. This shift has been associated with an increase in heavy cigarette smoking among women.