Risk factors for sudden unexpected cardiac death in young women in Rochester, Minnesota, 1960 through 1974

Abstract

A case-control study of sudden unexpected death (SUD) as the initial manifestation of coronary heart disease in women younger than 60 years of age was conducted in Rochester, Minnesota. Risk factors among the 15 SUD cases identified during the years 1960 through 1974 were compared with those in two control groups--a population group of 60 (4 age-matched controls per case) and the 59 cases of myocardial infarction diagnosed in women younger than 60 years of age in Rochester during the same period. By using Miettinen's matched analysis for comparison of SUD cases and matched controls, the relative risks for the accepted coronary heart disease risk factors of ever smoking and hypertension were 8.6 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.3 to 57.3) and 5.7 (95% CI, 1.2 to 26.9), respectively. In a comparison of SUD cases and myocardial infarction cases by using the Mantel-Haenszel procedure and stratifying by five age groups, the odds ratios were 1.2 for ever smoking and 0.8 for hypertension. Six of the 15 SUD cases had a diagnosis of alcoholism compared with 2 of the 60 controls and 4 of the 59 myocardial infarction cases; thus, the relative risks were 12.0 (95% CI, 3.4 to 41.9) and 4.8 (95% CI, 1.3 to 18.2), respectively. Ever married SUD cases were nulliparous or had fewer children more often than the controls or the myocardial infarction cases. The combination of major psychiatric diagnosis and major tranquilizer use occurred with greater frequency among SUD cases than among controls (relative risk, 2.9; 95% CI, 0.6 to 14.1), whereas comparison of SUD cases and myocardial infarction cases for this variable resulted in a relative risk of 0.7 (95% CI, 0.3 to 1.9).