Male pattern baldness is not associated with established cardiovascular risk factors in the general population

A number of studies have shown an association between male pattern baldness (MPB) and cardiovascular disease. Few of these studies, however, have exam ined whether MPB is a novel risk factor, or is associated with abnormalitie s of established coronary risk factors. We have therefore performed an anal ysis of M PB and cardiovascular risk factors in the general population. A t otal of 1219 male participants aged 18-70 years from the Victorian Family H eart Study were surveyed using a validated questionnaire for degree and pat tern of baldness. Carefully standardized measures of height, weight, blood pressure, pulse rate. total and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and p lasma fibrinogen were made. Subjects were grouped according to the degree a nd pattern of baldness as: no baldness, frontal baldness and vertex baldnes s. Bald men were older than non-bald men (P < 0.0001). Age was also associa ted with increased levels of coronary risk factors (P < 0.0001). When multi ple regression was used to adjust for age differences, the levels of corona ry risk factors were not significantly different between the bald and non-b ald groups. The lack of association between baldness and established corona ry risk factors implies that baldness may predispose to coronary heart dise ase through novel mechanisms yet to be defined.