Coronary heart disease in women.

The results presented above indicate that the risk factors associated with the development of coronary heart disease in women are not that different than those identified for men. It is encouraging to note that while the prevalence of hypertension in women has not changed over the past twenty years, the proportion of treated hypertensive women has increased dramatically and the proportion with controlled blood pressure has doubled since 1960. It is also encouraging to note that the number of adult women who smoke cigarettes has decreased since 1960, but the number of young girls who smoke has increased at an alarming rate. It has been noted by researchers that among women who smoke, the number of cigarettes smoked per day has increased from the 1950s to the present. From the Framingham data it can be seen that womens' serum cholesterol level increases substantially with age and women should take steps to eat a healthy low-saturated fat, low cholesterol diet in order to maintain a low blood cholesterol level. It has been shown from the Framingham Study data that although the same risk factors operate in men and women, the standard risk factors do not explain the marked differences in morbidity and mortality from heart disease between the two sexes. We must continue to study the epidemiology and biology of coronary heart disease in women both to better understand the disease process in women and to understand the large sex differential for CHD in most westernized countries.