Factors Associated with Changing Sex Ratio of myocardial Infarction

Abstract

In a recent epdemiological study of autopsied patients with acute myocardial infarction, at Washington University, it was discovered that a shift has occurred in recent years in the relative incidence of the disease in the two sexes.¹In the period 1910-1939 the incidence of acute myocardial infarction was twice as great in men as it was in women. In the period 1940-1954 the incidence was not significantly greater in men than in women. The results in a portion of the latter period have been confirmed by Acher, Burchell, and Edwards,* who found a similar ratio (1:1) between the sexes among the patients with acute myocardial infarction autopsied at Mayo Clinic during the period 1946-1950. Such a shift is of profound significance and warrants a careful search for factors that may be responsible. The purpose of this report is to present the results of a study of various factors associated