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Healthier people are more likely to die after a heart attack
Last reviewed: 16.10.2021
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A new analysis of half a million patients with heart attacks found that people with risk factors for cardiovascular diseases - such as hypertension and high cholesterol - are more likely to survive during their stay in the hospital than healthy people without risk factors.
The more risk factors for cardiovascular disease, given the age and weight, in patients, the lower their chances of death.
At first glance this may seem illogical, say scientists. One explanation for this discovery is that people who already had heart problems may have taken medications, including statins and beta blockers that protect their heart after suffering a heart attack.
John G. Songs, MD, MSPH, from the Watson LLP clinic, Lakeland, Fla., And his team conducted a study of approximately 5,550 cases of newly diagnosed cardiac attacks, using data from the National Myocardial Infarction Register (1994-2006) to assess absence or the presence of five leading traditional risk factors for IHD:
- Smoking
- Diabetes
- CHD in family history
- Dyslipidaemia
- Hypertension
They found that 14.4% of the participants in the study had no risk factors, 81% had 1 to 3 risk factors for CHD, and 4.5% had 4 to 5 risk factors for CHD. The most common risk factor among participants with primary myocardial infarction was arterial hypertension (52.3%), followed by smoking (31.3%), the presence of CHD in the family history (28.0%), dyslipidemia (28.0%) and diabetes mellitus (22.4%). Age between participants was inversely proportional to the number of risk factors for IHD, with an average age of 56.7 years from 5 risk factors to 71.5 years with 0 risk factors.
During the study, about 50,000 patients died in the hospital. Analysis of the data showed that there is an opposite relationship between the number of risk factors for IHD and overall mortality:
- in the absence of risk factors, mortality was 14.9%
- 1 risk factor - 10.9%
- 2 risk factors - 7.9%
- 3 risk factors - 5.3%
- 4 risk factors - 4.2%
- 5 risk factors - 3.6%
The study showed that people without risk factors (smoking, normal blood pressure, normal cholesterol, no history of diabetes and heart disease) were more likely to be older and 50% more likely to die in the hospital than people with all these risk factors .
One out of seven patients who did not have a single risk factor died after a heart attack, while in a group with all five risk factors, one in 28 patients died.
The researchers explain such results by the fact that patients with a large number of risk factors received adequate treatment within the first 24 hours after their admission to the hospital.
People who have had heart problems in the past could take medication before a heart attack or visit a cardiologist regularly, but it is certainly impossible to find out.
Also, people who do not have major risk factors for heart disease may have had unaccounted health risks, which have become the main cause of heart attack and increased their chances of dying.
The results of the study mean that doctors should more closely examine at first glance "healthy" patients who do not have risk factors for the development of heart disease.
However, the study does not suggest that smoking or having high blood pressure will favorably affect your heart, scientists stressed.
In addition, they added: "The absence of risk factors for the development of heart disease - not a reason not to go to regular consultations with a doctor."