International Journal of Epidemiology, Vol 26, 748-756, Copyright © 1997 by International Epidemiological Association
F Kee, V Nicaud, L Tiret, A Evans, D O'Reilly and G De Backer
BACKGROUND: Previous studies have demonstrated that short men are at
increased risk of coronary heart disease (CHD). It has been suggested that
the inverse relationship between adult height and CHD risk could be
attributable to the fetal origins of CHD. METHOD: The hypothesis that
transmissible factors could partly explain the association has been tested
in the European Atherosclerosis Research Studies (I and II), in which a
sample of healthy university students (cases), drawn from 18 European
countries (male: n = 721; female: n = 330), whose fathers had had a
documented myocardial infarction before the age of 55 years were compared
to age- and sex-matched controls (male: n = 1056; female: n = 638).
Information about lifestyle and birthweight was collected and a fasting
blood sample was obtained from each subject. RESULTS: In females there was
no difference in height between cases and controls but male cases were
shorter than controls, on average by one cm, both in the EARS I (P = 0.02)
and the EARS II studies (P = 0.01) and this difference was independent of
reported birthweight and the fathers' educational attainment. In logistic
regression the relationship was independent of the subjects' apolipoprotein
B level, the other major biological discriminator of case-control status.
CONCLUSION: In men at least, height appears to be an independent
transmissible risk factor for CHD.
ARTICLES
Short stature and heart disease: nature or nurture? The EARS Group
Department of Epidemiology, Queen's University of Belfast, Royal Victoria Hospital, Northern Ireland.
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