THE EPIDEMIOLOGY OF IDIOPATHIC DILATED CARDIOMYOPATHY IN WOMEN - THE WASHINGTON DC DILATED CARDIOMYOPATHY STUDY

We examined possible risk factors for idiopathic dilated cardiomyopath y in women by comparing newly diagnosed cases (N = 61) ascertained fro m five Washington DC area hospitals with neighborhood controls (N = 12 2) identified using a random digit dialing technique. We marched the c ases and controls on 5-year age intervals and telephone exchange and a nalyzed the data using conditional logistic regression methods. We fou nd that: idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy was associated with history of asthma, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and black race. The assoc iation with hypertension was particularly strong among women who were less than 50 years of age [crude relative odds (RO) = 21.0, 95% confid ence interval (CI) = 4.6-96.9]. We found a strong inverse association with history of oral contraceptive use (crude RO = 0.3, 95% CI = 0.1-0 .7; adjusted RO = 0.1, 95% CI = 0.1-0.5, controlling for other identif ied risk factors). Only 13.2% (7 of 53) of the cases had a reported hi story of contraceptive use, as compared with 35.5% (43 of 121) of the controls. The possible protective effect from oral contraceptive use w as not explained by race, educational attainment, asthma, diabetes mel litus, or hypertension, and was more pronounced among women who were l ess than 50 years of age.