Abdominal aortic aneurysm events in the women's health initiative: cohort study

doi:10.1136/bmj.a1724

Published 14 October 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.a1724
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a1724

Research

Abdominal aortic aneurysm events in the women’s health initiative: cohort study

Frank A Lederle, professor of medicine¹, Joseph C Larson, statistical research associate², Karen L Margolis, senior clinical investigator³, Matthew A Allison, assistant professor of family and preventive medicine⁴, Matthew S Freiberg, assistant professor of medicine and epidemiology⁵, Barbara B Cochrane, associate professor of family and child nursing⁶, William F Graettinger, professor of medicine⁷, J David Curb, professor of geriatric medicine and medicine⁸

¹ VA Medical Center, Minneapolis, MN 55417, USA, ² Women’s Health Initiative Clinical Coordinating Center, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA 98109, ³ HealthPartners Research Foundation, Minneapolis, MN 55440-1524, ⁴ University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0811, ⁵ University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15215, ⁶ University of Washington School of Nursing, Seattle, WA 98195-7262, ⁷ University of Nevada School of Medicine, Reno, NV 89557, ⁸ University of Hawaii School of Medicine, Honolulu, HI 96813

Correspondence to: F A Lederle frank.lederle{at}va.gov

Objective To assess the association between potential risk factorsand subsequent clinically important abdominal aortic aneurysmevents (repairs and ruptures) in women.

Design Large prospective observational cohort study with meanfollow-up of 7.8 years.

Setting 40 clinical centres across the United States.

Participants 161 808 postmenopausal women aged 50-79 enrolledin the women’s health initiative.

Main outcome measures Association of self reported or measuredbaseline variables with confirmed abdominal aortic aneurysmevents assessed with multiple logistic regression.

Results Events occurred in 184 women and were strongly associatedwith age and smoking. Ever smoking, current smoking, and amountsmoked all contributed independent risk. Diabetes showed a negativeassociation (odds ratio 0.29, 95% confidence interval 0.13,0.68), as did postmenopausal hormone therapy. Positive associationswere also seen for height, hypertension, cholesterol loweringtreatment, and coronary and peripheral artery disease.

Conclusions Our findings confirm the strong positive associationsof clinically important abdominal aortic aneurysm with age andsmoking in women and the negative association with diabetespreviously reported in men.

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Relevant Article

Abdominal aortic aneurysm events in postmenopausal women: Janet T Powell and Paul E Norman
BMJ 2008 337: a1894. [Extract] [Full Text]

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Powell, J. T, Norman, P. E (2008). Abdominal aortic aneurysm events in postmenopausal women. BMJ 337: a1894-a1894 [Full text]

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