scholarly journals COVID-19 Associated Mortality and Cardiovascular Disease Outcomes Among U.S. Women Veterans

Author(s):  
Shirling Tsai ◽  
Hang Nguyen ◽  
Ramin Ebrahimi ◽  
Monica Barbosa ◽  
Bala Ramanan ◽  
...  

Abstract BackgroundThe burden of COVID-19 has been noted to be disproportionately greater in minority women, a population that is nevertheless still understudied in COVID-19 research. MethodsWe conducted a case-control cohort study to examine COVID-19-associated mortality and cardiovascular disease outcomes after testing (henceforth index) among a racially diverse adult women veteran population. We drew data from a Veterans Affairs (VA) national COVID-19 shared data repository, collected between February and August 2020. Kaplan-Meier curves and the Cox proportional hazards model were employed to examine the distribution of time to death and the effects of baseline predictors on mortality risk. Generalized linear models were used to examine 60-day cardiovascular disease outcomes. Covariates studied included age, body mass index (BMI), and active smoking status at index, and pre-existing conditions of diabetes, chronic kidney disease (CKD), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and a history of treatment with antiplatelet or anti-thrombotic drug at any time in the 2 years prior to the index date.ResultsWomen veterans who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 had 4 times higher mortality risk than women veterans who tested negative (Hazard Ratio 3.8, 95% Confidence Interval CI 2.92 to 4.89) but had lower risk of cardiovascular events (Odds Ratio OR 0.78, 95% CI 0.66 to 0.92) and developing new heart disease conditions within 60 days (OR 0.67, 95% CI 0.58 to 0.77). Older age, obesity (BMI > 30), and prior CVD and COPD conditions were positively associated with increased mortality in 60 days. Despite a higher infection rate among minority women veterans, there was no significant race difference in mortality, cardiovascular events, or onset of heart disease. Conclusions and RelevanceSARS-CoV-2 infection increased short-term mortality risk among women veterans similarly across race groups. However, there was no evidence of increased cardiovascular disease incidence in 60 days. A longer follow-up of women veterans who tested positive is warranted.

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shirling Tsai ◽  
Hang Nguyen ◽  
Ramin Ebrahimi ◽  
Monica R. Barbosa ◽  
Bala Ramanan ◽  
...  

AbstractThe burden of COVID-19 has been noted to be disproportionately greater in minority women, a population that is nevertheless still understudied in COVID-19 research. We conducted an observational study to examine COVID-19-associated mortality and cardiovascular disease outcomes after testing (henceforth index) among a racially diverse adult women veteran population. We assembled a retrospective cohort from a Veterans Affairs (VA) national COVID-19 shared data repository, collected between February and August 2020. A case was defined as a woman veteran who tested positive for SARS-COV-2, and a control as a woman veteran who tested negative. We used Kaplan–Meier curves and the Cox proportional hazards model to examine the distribution of time to death and the effects of baseline predictors on mortality risk. We used generalized linear models to examine 60-day cardiovascular disease outcomes. Covariates studied included age, body mass index (BMI), and active smoking status at index, and pre-existing conditions of diabetes, chronic kidney disease (CKD), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and a history of treatment with antiplatelet or anti-thrombotic drug at any time in the 2 years prior to the index date. Women veterans who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 had 4 times higher mortality risk than women veterans who tested negative (Hazard Ratio 3.8, 95% Confidence Interval CI 2.92 to 4.89) but had lower risk of cardiovascular events (Odds Ratio OR 0.78, 95% CI 0.66 to 0.92) and developing new heart disease conditions within 60 days (OR 0.67, 95% CI 0.58 to 0.77). Older age, obesity (BMI > 30), and prior CVD and COPD conditions were positively associated with increased mortality in 60 days. Despite a higher infection rate among minority women veterans, there was no significant race difference in mortality, cardiovascular events, or onset of heart disease. SARS-CoV-2 infection increased short-term mortality risk among women veterans similarly across race groups. However, there was no evidence of increased cardiovascular disease incidence in 60 days. A longer follow-up of women veterans who tested positive is warranted.


1985 ◽  
Vol 110 (4_Suppl) ◽  
pp. S21-S26 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. J. Jarrett ◽  
M. J. Shipley

Summary. In 168 male diabetics aged 40-64 years participating in the Whitehall Study, ten-year age adjusted mortality rates were significantly higher than in non-diabetics for all causes, coronary heart disease, all cardiovascular disease and, in addition, causes other than cardiovascular. Mortality rates were not significantly related to known duration of the diabetes. The predictive effects of several major mortality risk factors were similar in diabetics and non-diabetics. Excess mortality rates in the diabetics could not be attributed to differences in levels of blood pressure or any other of the major risk factors measured. Key words: diabetics; mortality rates; risk factors; coronary heart disease. There are many studies documenting higher mortality rates - particularly from cardiovascular disease -in diabetics compared with age and sex matched diabetics from the same population (see Jarrett et al. (1982) for review). However, there is sparse information relating potential risk factors to subsequent mortality within a diabetic population, information which might help to explain the increased mortality risk and also suggest preventive therapeutic approaches. In the Whitehall Study, a number of established diabetics participated in the screening programme and data on mortality rates up to ten years after screening are available. We present here a comparison of diabetics and non-diabetics in terms of relative mortality rates and the influence of conventional risk factors as well as an analysis of the relationship between duration of diabetes and mortality risk.


2014 ◽  
Vol 108 (12) ◽  
pp. 1779-1785 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hwa Mu Lee ◽  
Michael A. Liu ◽  
Elizabeth Barrett-Connor ◽  
Nathan D. Wong

2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (48) ◽  
pp. 3889-3897 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathleen M Sturgeon ◽  
Lei Deng ◽  
Shirley M Bluethmann ◽  
Shouhao Zhou ◽  
Daniel M Trifiletti ◽  
...  

Abstract Aims This observational study characterized cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality risk for multiple cancer sites, with respect to the following: (i) continuous calendar year, (ii) age at diagnosis, and (iii) follow-up time after diagnosis. Methods and results The Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results program was used to compare the US general population to 3 234 256 US cancer survivors (1973–2012). Standardized mortality ratios (SMRs) were calculated using coded cause of death from CVDs (heart disease, hypertension, cerebrovascular disease, atherosclerosis, and aortic aneurysm/dissection). Analyses were adjusted by age, race, and sex. Among 28 cancer types, 1 228 328 patients (38.0%) died from cancer and 365 689 patients (11.3%) died from CVDs. Among CVDs, 76.3% of deaths were due to heart disease. In eight cancer sites, CVD mortality risk surpassed index-cancer mortality risk in at least one calendar year. Cardiovascular disease mortality risk was highest in survivors diagnosed at <35 years of age. Further, CVD mortality risk is highest (SMR 3.93, 95% confidence interval 3.89–3.97) within the first year after cancer diagnosis, and CVD mortality risk remains elevated throughout follow-up compared to the general population. Conclusion The majority of deaths from CVD occur in patients diagnosed with breast, prostate, or bladder cancer. We observed that from the point of cancer diagnosis forward into survivorship cancer patients (all sites) are at elevated risk of dying from CVDs compared to the general US population. In endometrial cancer, the first year after diagnosis poses a very high risk of dying from CVDs, supporting early involvement of cardiologists in such patients.


2010 ◽  
Vol 56 (5) ◽  
pp. 799-804 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Beilby ◽  
Mark L Divitini ◽  
Matthew W Knuiman ◽  
Enrico Rossi ◽  
Joseph Hung

Abstract Background: Reduced renal function is an established risk factor for cardiovascular events. We compared 3 measures of renal function—serum cystatin C, serum creatinine, and calculated creatinine clearance—as predictors of subsequent cardiovascular events in a community-based population of elderly individuals. Methods: Comprehensive cardiovascular risk factor data were available for 1410 surviving participants of previous Busselton health surveys who were ≥60 years old. Hazard ratios for risk of incident coronary heart disease and cardiovascular disease over 10 years of follow-up were derived for each baseline measure of renal function by use of Cox regression. Results: All measures of renal function were significantly related to risks of morbidity and mortality from coronary heart disease and cardiovascular disease. There were 453 incident cardiovascular disease events; and the age- and sex-adjusted hazard ratios (95% CIs) were 1.34 (1.23–1.46), 1.32 (1.20–1.45), and 1.22 (1.06–1.41) per 1-SD deterioration in cystatin C, creatinine, and creatinine clearance, respectively. All 3 measures gave approximately the same age-adjusted relative risk estimates. After further adjustment for established cardiovascular risk factors, the relative risk estimates were all reduced but remained statistically significant (P < 0.05). Cystatin C was not a significant predictor for cardiovascular disease after adjustment for creatinine clearance. Conclusions: In relation to predicting risk for coronary heart disease or cardiovascular disease over a 10-year follow-up in a community-based population of elderly subjects, there was no evidence that cystatin C was a better risk predictor than creatinine or creatinine clearance.


Nutrients ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 2218 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tung Hoang ◽  
Jeongseon Kim

Statins and omega-3 supplementation have been recommended for cardiovascular disease prevention, but comparative effects have not been investigated. This study aimed to summarize current evidence of the effect of statins and omega-3 supplementation on cardiovascular events. A meta-analysis and a network meta-analysis of 63 randomized controlled trials were used to calculate pooled relative risks (RRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the effects of specific statins and omega-3 supplementation compared with controls. Overall, the statin group showed significant risk reductions in total cardiovascular disease, coronary heart disease, myocardial infarction, and stroke; however, omega-3 supplementation significantly decreased the risks of coronary heart disease and myocardial infarction only, in the comparison with the control group. In comparison with omega-3 supplementation, pravastatin significantly reduced the risks of total cardiovascular disease (RR = 0.81, 95% CI = 0.72–0.91), coronary heart disease (RR = 0.75, 95% CI = 0.60–0.94), and myocardial infarction (RR = 0.71, 95% CI = 0.55–0.94). Risks of total cardiovascular disease, coronary heart disease, myocardial infarction, and stroke in the atorvastatin group were statistically lower than those in the omega-3 group, with RRs (95% CIs) of 0.80 (0.73–0.88), 0.64 (0.50–0.82), 0.75 (0.60–0.93), and 0.81 (0.66–0.99), respectively. The findings of this study suggest that pravastatin and atorvastatin may be more beneficial than omega-3 supplementation in reducing the risk of total cardiovascular disease, coronary heart disease, and myocardial infarction.


Author(s):  
Haekyung Jeon-Slaughter ◽  
Xiaofei Chen ◽  
Bala Ramanan ◽  
Shirling Tsai

The current study assessed performance of the new Veterans Affairs (VA) women cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk score in predicting women veterans’ 60-day CVD event risk using VA COVID-19 shared cohort data. The study data included 17,264 women veterans—9658 White, 6088 African American, and 1518 Hispanic women veterans—ever treated at US VA hospitals and clinics between 24 February and 25 November 2020. The VA women CVD risk score discriminated patients with CVD events at 60 days from those without CVD events with accuracy (area under the curve) of 78%, 50%, and 83% for White, African American, and Hispanic women veterans, respectively. The VA women CVD risk score itself showed good accuracy in predicting CVD events at 60 days for White and Hispanic women veterans, while it performed poorly for African American women veterans. The future studies are needed to identify non-traditional factors and biomarkers associated with increased CVD risk specific to African American women and incorporate them to the CVD risk assessment.


2018 ◽  
Vol 36 (7_suppl) ◽  
pp. 114-114
Author(s):  
Flora Van Leeuwen ◽  
Inge Krul ◽  
Annemieke Opstal-Van Winden ◽  
Cecile P.M. Janus ◽  
Laurien Daniels ◽  
...  

114 Background: Female survivors of Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) treated with alkylating chemotherapy (CT) and/or pelvic radiotherapy (RT) have an increased risk of primary ovarian insufficiency (POI). Among women with a natural menopause, POI has been associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). We examined whether treatment-induced POI increases long-term CVD risk in HL survivors. Methods: From a large Dutch cohort of 5-year HL survivors, we selected 918 women who were treated before 41 years of age between 1965 and 2000. Data on HL treatment, menopausal status and cardiovascular events (ischemic heart disease (IHD), heart failure (HF) and valvular heart disease (VHD)) were obtained from medical records, general practitioners and patient questionnaires. CVD risks were estimated with Cox regression models using time-dependent covariates and attained age as the time scale. Results: After a median follow-up of 24 years, 299 out of 918 women (33%) had developed POI (median menopausal age, 34 years). We identified 463 cardiovascular events in 300 women, of whom 85 developed CVD after POI. POI was not associated with subsequent CVD risk (HR:0.85, 95% CI 0.62-1.16) compared with a menopausal age of ≥40 years. Compared with women who reached menopause at ages ≥50 years, the HRs for menopausal ages of < 30 years, 30-39 and 40-49 years were 0.90 (95% CI 0.52-1.56), 0.87 (95% CI 0.57-1.33) and 0.96 (95% CI 0.64-1.44), respectively. Furthermore, a short duration of intact ovarian function after HL treatment ( < 5 years) did not increase CVD risk compared to a long duration (≥25 years) (HR:0.72, 95% CI 0.44-1.20). 177 women had used HRT, of whom 115 (65%) with POI (median duration of HRT use, 8.3 years). Women who used HRT for ≥5 years did not have a higher CVD risk than non-HRT users (HR 1.02, 95% CI 0.64-1.62). Similar results were found in analyses with IHD, HF and VHD as separate outcomes. Conclusions: POI and duration of post-treatment intact ovarian function did not affect CVD risk in HL survivors, suggesting that an early artificial menopause does not increase CVD risk.


2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (10) ◽  
pp. 1991-1999 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Yuk Fai Wan ◽  
Esther Yee Tak Yu ◽  
Weng Yee Chin ◽  
Daniel Yee Tak Fong ◽  
Edmond Pui Hang Choi ◽  
...  

BackgroundThe relative effects of combinations of CKD, heart disease, and stroke on risk of mortality, direct medical costs, and life expectancy are unknown.MethodsIn a retrospective cohort study of 506,849 Chinese adults in Hong Kong with hypertension, we used Cox regressions to examine associations between all-cause mortality and combinations of moderate CKD (eGFR of 30–59 ml/min per 1.73 m2), severe CKD (eGFR of 15–29 ml/min per 1.73 m2), heart disease (coronary heart disease or heart failure), and stroke, and modeling to estimate annual public direct medical costs and life expectancy.ResultsOver a median follow-up of 5.8 years (2.73 million person-years), 55,666 deaths occurred. Having an increasing number of comorbidities was associated with incremental increases in mortality risk and medical costs and reductions in life expectancy. Compared with patients who had neither CKD nor cardiovascular disease, patients with one, two, or three conditions (heart disease, stroke, and moderate CKD) had relative risk of mortality increased by about 70%, 160%, and 290%, respectively; direct medical costs increased by about 70%, 160%, and 280%, respectively; and life expectancy at age 60 years decreased by about 5, 10, and 15 years, respectively. Burdens were higher with severe CKD.ConclusionsThis study demonstrated extremely high mortality risk and medical cost increases for severe CKD, exceeding the combined effects from heart disease and stroke. Mortality risks and costs for moderate CKD, heart disease, and stroke were similar individually and roughly multiplicative for any combination. These findings suggest that to reduce mortality and health care costs in patients with hypertension, CKD prevention and intervention merits priority equal to that of cardiovascular disease.


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