HEIGHT AND THE RISK OF CARDIOVASCULAR-DISEASE IN WOMEN

Height has been inversely associated with coronary heart disease in se veral prospective studies in men, but data in women are sparse, The re lation between height and cardiovascular disease was examined in 14 ye ars of follow-up data from the Nurses' Health Study, a prospective coh ort of 121,700 US female nurses aged 30-55 years in 1976. The relative risks associating height with coronary heart disease (nonfatal myocar dial infarction (n = 1,000), fatal myocardial infarction (n = 304), co nfirmed angina (n = 1,343), or coronary revascularization (n = 901)) w ere estimated after adjustment for a large number of cardiovascular ri sk factors, including age and body mass index, Compared with the short est women (less than or equal to 61 inches (less than or equal to 1.55 m)), the relative risk of coronary heart disease was 0.82 (95% confid ence interval (CI) 0.73-0.92) for women 62-63 inches (1.57-1.60 m) tal l, 0.74 (95% CI 0.65-0.85) for women 64 inches (1.63 m) tall, 0.79 (95 % CI 0.70-0.89) for women 65-66 inches (1.65-1.68 m) tall, and 0.73 (9 5% CI 0.65-0.83) for women 67 or more inches (less than or equal to 1. 70 m) tall (p for trend < 0.0001), The inverse association was more pr onounced for angina/coronary revascularization Ip for trend < 0.0001; relative risk for 67 or more inches = 0.67 (95% CI 0.58-0.78)) than fo r myocardial infarction Ip for trend = 0.03; relative risk for 67 or m ore inches = 0.78 (95% Cl 0.64-0.95)), No trend was evident for height in relation to risk of stroke. These data support the hypothesis that height is inversely related to risk of coronary heart disease in wome n..