Reports on heart failure (HF) predictors are scarce. We assessed gender-specific HF predictors.
Preventive case-finding programme, register study.
City population-based sample
We examined 33,342 HF-free subjects, 32.7% women, included in Malmö Preventive Project. Mean inclusion age was 49.7±7.4 years for women and 43.7±6.6 years for men.
During 21.7±4.3 years of average follow-up, 764 (2.3%) subjects were diagnosed with HF, 120 (1.1%) women and 644 (2.9%) men. Following bootstrap analysis, the only strong independent predictor of HF among women was smoking. Independent predictors of HF among men were diastolic blood pressure (BP), fasting blood-glucose, smoking, family history of myocardial infarction, and previous cardiovascular disease (CVD). During follow-up, 5,370 (16.1%) subjects died, 978 (9.0%) women and 4,392 (19.6%) men. Among both women and men, strong independent predictors of combined HF or all-cause death were high serum-triglycerides, fasting blood-glucose and estimated glomerular filtration rate, smoking, and previous CVD. Among men, also underweight, high BMI, and systolic and diastolic BP, were strong independent predictors of HF or death.
Although women and men shared many predictors of HF, there were several important differences between sexes.