Study Reveals a Turning Point When Men’s Heart Attack Risk Accelerates : ScienceAlert

Screening for heart attack risk should be happening earlier for men, according to a new study that found the risk of cardiovascular disease starts climbing when men are in their mid-30s – significantly earlier than a similar trend is seen in women.

The US-based researchers behind the study followed the health of 5,112 people for an average of around 34 years. As the participants were healthy and aged 18-30 when the study started in the mid-1980s, the researchers could chart cases of cardiovascular disease (including strokes and heart failure) over time.

According to the data, 35 is the critical age when disparities between male and female cardiovascular disease risk start to appear. Most of the difference is driven by coronary heart disease (CHD), the most common cause of heart attacks, where fatty deposits clog up arteries, blocking blood flow.

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“That timing may seem early, but heart disease develops over decades, with early markers detectable in young adulthood,” says epidemiologist Alexa Freedman from Northwestern University in the US.

“Screening at an earlier age can help identify risk factors sooner, enabling preventive strategies that reduce long-term risk.”

After accounting for other contributory factors, including blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar levels, smoking status, physical activity, and body weight, the gap was lessened – but it didn’t disappear, suggesting there’s more to the story.

The data showed that men reach a 5 percent incidence level of cardiovascular disease about seven years earlier than women, or 50.5 years versus 57.5 years, on average. For CHD specifically, a 2 percent incidence is reached in men a decade ahead of women.

For stroke risk, there was little difference between men and women, and the gap for heart failure (where the heart isn’t pumping as well as it should be) started to emerge later in life, findings that future studies may be able to build upon.

“This was still a relatively young sample – everyone was under 65 at last follow-up – and stroke and heart failure tend to develop later in life,” says Freedman.

While the study didn’t go into the reasons for the discrepancy between men and women in much detail, differences in sex hormones and cholesterol levels may be partly responsible.

The 10-year difference in CHD risk between the sexes has been reported before, but this new study analyzed more recent data and expanded upon previous analyses to include multiple kinds of cardiovascular disease.

Heart disease remains the leading cause of death for both men and women in the United States, and the researchers are keen not to underplay the risks for women.

However, given that women are more likely to regularly visit health professionals for check-ups, and men have such a significant head start when it comes to heart attack risk, the researchers are hoping to see more done to encourage men to get their heart health assessed at an earlier age.

“Our findings suggest that encouraging preventive care visits among young men could be an important opportunity to improve heart health and lower cardiovascular disease risk,” says Freedman.

The research has been published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.