Distribution of Deaths from Ischemic Heart Disease and Stroke. Environmental and Aging Influences in Men and Women

Abstract

The goal of this study was to check: 1) links between month of the year (1-12), monthly solar activity (SA) and monthly geomagnetic activity (GMA) with the temporal distribution of deaths from ischemic heart disease (IHD) and stroke in Israel and Lithuania (48 months); 2) related age and gender differences; 3) temporal connection between deaths from IHD and suicide and their relationship to SA and GMA, as was suggested in our previous study in Israel. Total deaths from IHD in Lithuania showed a trend towards a link with SA (r = 0.25, p = 0.09) and a highly significant correlation for females (r = 0.37, p = 0.00096) but not for males. Age < 74 showed no correlation with SA or GMA in females, but a negative correlation with SA in males (r = -0.513, p = 0.0002). At age > 74 both females (r = 0.467, p = 0.0006, n = 20763) and males (r = 0.476, p = 0.0006, n = 14682) showed a highly significant correlation with SA and a negative correlation with 1-12 months of the year, with deaths concentrating at the beginning of the year (r = -0.32, p = 0.002). Number of monthly suicide and IHD deaths were negatively related to each other (r = -0.45, p = 0.0014). 1) Around age 70 an increasingly positive relationship between the temporal distribution of deaths from IDH and SA is seen. 2) Gender differences in links to SA are partially a consequence of the higher number of deaths in females from IHD at age > 74.3) Monthly number of suicides is inversely related to number of deaths from IHD.