Smoking--a risk factor for cardiovascular disease in women? Considerations based on a prospective population study of women in Gothenburg, Sweden.

A longitudinal population study of 1462 women aged 38-60 was carried out in Gothenburg, Sweden during 1968-69. The participants have been followed up for 12 years. The relationships between smoking and cardiovascular disease and between smoking and mortality have been evaluated. No significant increased risk was observed for smoking women concerning the 12-year incidence of myocardial infarction, angina pectoris, electrocardiographic changes suggesting ischaemic heart disease, stroke or death from all causes. Multivariate analysis could not demonstrate an independent effect of the cigarette smoking habit in women on these end-points. In agreement with the results from the Framingham prospective study we could not in our prospective study verify the markedly increased risk of myocardial infarction in smoking women, which has been observed in a number of cross-sectional studies of women and also in prospective studies of men.