Gender differences in epidemiology and risk factors of acute coronary syndrome in Algerian patients of the Oran city: descriptive cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background and aims: The aim of this study is to determine the role of clinical, lifestyle, and behavioral characteristics on the severity of the disease according to the gender. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional descriptive study. Results: An initial sample of 1219 patients was admitted for ACS in the cardiology service of Oran-Univer-sity-Hospital-Center. The electrocardiographic results revealed that 34% of the patients had ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) while 66% had non-ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI). In STEMI patients, the mean age was 60.87±12.20 years. STEMI patients sample included 413 pa- tients with 324 men with a mean age of 59.92±11.78 years and 89 women with a mean age of 64.36±13.13 years. A male predominance observed with a sex-ratio of 3.6. Among STEMI patients, 34.8% of patients had hypertension where it was signifi cantly higher in women than in men (65.6% vs 26.5% respectively, p < 0.05). Diabetes was observed in 31.7% of the whole sample where it was also more common in women compared to men (50.6% vs 26.5%, respectively, p <0.05). Out of the 413 STEMI patients 63.9% had dyslipidemia which was signifi cantly higher in men compared to women (76.5% vs 13.5% respectively, p <0.05), 64.5% of men were current smokers. Out of the 324 STEMI men patients, 46.5% had three risk factors while in the 89 STEMI women patients, 34.8% had four risk factors. Conclusion: Our results demonstrated a higher prevalence of ACS among the studied sample. STEMI patients presented with several cardiovascular risk factors. Sex differences in the ACS presentation and risk factors was also noticed.