Abstract 12874: Risk of Ischemic Heart Disease in Young Women With Dysmenorrhea: A Cross-Sectional Study on Electronic Health Records

Abstract

Introduction: Ischemic heart disease (IHD) incidence is increasing among young individuals, particularly women. Suboptimal primary prevention due to risk underestimation is thought to contribute to this trend. Non-traditional risk factors, such as stress and female-specific factors, are often overlooked but offer an opportunity to improve risk stratification. Dysmenorrhea is the most prevalent menstrual complaint, and associated with increased stress and autonomic dysfunction. To date, contribution of dysmenorrhea to cardiovascular disease risk has not been investigated. Hypothesis: Dysmenorrhea is associated with increased risk of IHD before 50 years of age. Methods: We extracted a cohort of 30,554 women with dysmenorrhea and 25,350 controls from Mount Sinai data warehouse as shown in Fig 1. For statistical analysis we performed full propensity score matching on demographic and clinical covariates, followed by weighted logistic regression with IHD before age 50 as a binary outcome. We then investigated IHD subtypes (angina, acute myocardial infarction (AMI), AMI complications, chronic IHD) in separate regression models, and evaluated the inclusion of menstrual abnormalities (MA) and endometriosis as additional covariates in the models (vs other covariates only). Results: Dysmenorrhea was associated with a significant increase in the OR for overall IHD, angina and chronic IHD (Table 1), independently from MA or endometriosis. Conclusions: Dysmenorrhea might be an important risk factor for early IHD. The risk appears to be largest for angina and chronic IHD. Further research can investigate dysmenorrhea as a predictor of future IHD risk.