Overview
- The conclusions come from the CARDIA study, which enrolled 5,115 Black and White adults ages 18–30 in 1985–86 and tracked cardiovascular health for about three decades.
- A higher incidence of coronary heart disease accounted for most of the early male excess risk, with CHD by age 50 in 2.5% of men versus 0.9% of women.
- The male–female disparity remained after adjusting for smoking, blood pressure and Type 2 diabetes, indicating conventional factors do not fully explain the gap.
- Experts recommend beginning routine cardiovascular risk reviews around age 30 and incorporating nontraditional factors such as autoimmune disease, adverse pregnancy outcomes and elevated lipoprotein(a).
- Researchers note limits to generalizability because the cohort included only Black and White participants from an earlier recruitment era and lacked complete late-life data, leaving menopause-related questions open.