Coronary heart disease (CHD) is a major cause of death also among women (about 50% of all women die from CHD), yet very little is known about the causes of CHD in women. The "classical" risk factors - elevated serum lipid levels, hypertension, smoking, diabetes, and abdominal adipose tissue - increase the risk of CHD also in women. Different factors seem to have somewhat different impact on the risk of disease in men and women, however, and today's knowledge of risk factors for CHD is based mainly on data on middle-aged men. The present study will use data collected in three concurrent CHD studies in the Stockholm area viz., SHEEP, KOK, and APSIS. Different hypotheses on CHD risk factors are tested in the different studies and all studies comprise female subjects. The outcomes under study are myocardial infarction (in SHEEP and KOK) and angina pectoris (in APSIS and KOK) and exposure information is collected in interviews or questionnaires. All three studies use similar questions on e.g. social factors, on psychosocial work environment, on physical activity, and - for the women - on reproductive factors. We will combine the common information from the three studies and analyze it jointly. We estimate that such an analysis will comprise exposure information on certain risk factors for altogether approximately 1500 women and 2400 men, which should contribute substantially tot he understanding of these risk factors, especially in women.
The analyses is performed in collaboration with the National Institute for Working Life, the Institute of Environmental Medicine at the Karolinska Institute, the Department of Social Medicine at Kronan, Sundbyberg, the national Institute of Psychosocial Factors and Health, the Department of Medicine at the Karolinska Hospital, To be reported 1997.
Financial support: FRN.