Background-Sudden death was found to share the same set of usual risk facto
rs as coronary events and therefore could not be specifically predicted in
the population. It appears, however, that parental history of sudden death
has not been investigated yet as a risk factor for sudden death. Therefore,
we assessed risk factors, including parental sudden death, associated with
the occurrence of sudden death in a long-term cohort study.
Methods and Results-We included 7746 men employed by the city of Paris who
were 43 to 52 years of age in 1967 to 1972 in the Paris Prospective Study I
. Each subject underwent a physical examination and an EGG, provided blood
for laboratory tests, and answered questionnaires administered by trained i
nterviewers who paid particular attention to family medical history. Men wi
th known ischemic cardiac disease were further excluded from analysis. For
95.5% of the men, vital status was obtained from specific inquiries until r
etirement, then by death certificates. Resting heart rate, systolic or dias
tolic blood pressure, tobacco consumption, body mass index, diabetes status
, serum cholesterol, and parental history of sudden death were independent
factors associated with sudden death during follow-up (23 years on average)
. When adjusted for confounding variables, including parental history of my
ocardial infarction, relative risk of sudden death associated with parental
sudden death was 1.80 (95% CI, 1.11 to 2.88).
Conclusions-Parental sudden death is an independent risk factor for sudden
death in middle-aged men. The existence of familial risk factors for sudden
death may help provide better identification of subjects at high risk of a
nd early prevention of sudden death.