History of CV events in spouse increases CVD risk in men: Study

There is very little data available about the risk of subsequent cardiovascular events in individuals whose spouse has a history of cardiovascular diseases.

A study was conducted by a group of researchers from the University of Tokyo, Japan, to evaluate if spouse's history of cardiovascular disease is associated with a greater risk of cardiovascular events.

The researchers used data on married couples from the Japan Medical Data Center database from April 2008 to August 2018, following which they conducted a matched-pair cohort study by matching individuals who had no history of cardiovascular disease and whose spouse had a history of cardiovascular disease at their first health check-up (exposure group) with up to 4 individuals who had no history of cardiovascular disease and whose spouse had no history of cardiovascular disease at their first health check-up (non-exposure group) matched for birth year, sex, and first health check-up year. Among 236 527 eligible married couples (473 054 spouses), we identified 13 759 individuals in the exposure group who were matched with 55 027 individuals in the non-exposure group. They compared severe cardiovascular events after the first health check-up between the 2 groups.

The results of the study are as follows:

· During the mean 95-month observational period from the first health check-up, the percentage of individuals with severe cardiovascular events were higher in the exposure group than in the non-exposure group with a hazard ratio of 1.48.

· Analyses stratified by sex showed that the hazard ratios of the exposure to the spouse's history of cardiovascular disease for severe cardiovascular events in women and men were 1.22 and 1.68, respectively.

The researchers concluded that spouse's history of cardiovascular disease can be a risk factor for subsequent cardiovascular events in men but not in women. However, further studies are needed to confirm our findings and to explore effective primary prevention strategies for these individuals.

Reference:

A study titled, "Spouse's Cardiovascular Disease as a Risk Factor for Cardiovascular Disease in Middle-Aged Adults: A Matched-Pair Cohort Study" by Ohbe H and Yasunaga H published in the Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.

Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomeshttps://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCOUTCOMES.120.007649