Abstract

Objective: To study gender differences in clinical status at the time of coronary revascularisation.

Design: Retrospective study of clinical records. Two stage stratified cluster sampling was used to select a nationally representative sample of patients receiving a coronary revascularisation procedure in 1997.

Setting: All of Spain.

Main outcome measures: Odds ratios (OR) in men and women for different clinical and diagnostic variables related with coronary disease. A logistic regression model was developed to estimate the association between coronary symptoms and gender.

Results: In the univariate analysis the prevalence of the following risk factors for coronary heart disease was higher in women than in men: obesity (OR=1.8), hypertension (OR=2.9) and diabetes (OR=2.1). High surgical risk was also more prevalent among women (OR=2.6). In the logistic regression analysis women's risk of being symptomatic at the time of revascularisation was more than double that of men (OR=2.4).

Conclusions: Women have more severe coronary symptoms at the time of coronary revascularisation than do men. These results suggest that women receive revascularisation at a more advanced stage of coronary disease. Further research is needed to clarify what social, cultural or biological factors may be implicated in the gender differences observed.