Sex-specific time trends in very elderly patients (aged ≥80 years) hospitalized with myocardial infarction.
OBJECTIVE
To assess sex-related time trends in the proportion of very elderly patients (age ≥80) hospitalized with myocardial infarction (MI).


METHODS
Data were obtained from all states in the USA that contributed to the Nationwide Inpatient Sample. All patients admitted to hospital between 1997 and 2006 with a primary discharge diagnosis of MI, identified by the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision procedure codes were included. Percentages of MI hospitalizations comprising men and women aged ≥80 were evaluated.


RESULTS
Overall, between 1997 and 2006, the absolute number of MI hospitalizations decreased from 732,170 to 674,988, but the percentage of very elderly men rose in a roughly linear pattern by 2.84% from 14.2% in 1997 to 17.1% in 2006 (95% CI 1.9-3.8%, p < 0.001) while among very elderly women, the percentages increased linearly by 4.95% from 31.0% in 1997 to 35.95% in 2006 (95% CI 3.6-6.3%, p < 0.001). Comparing women to men, the rise was 1.74 times larger (95% CI 1.26-2.23, p = 0.03).


CONCLUSIONS
Over the last decade, the percentage of very elderly women hospitalized with MI in the United States rose at almost twice the rate of similarly aged men. These trends may be expected to exponentially worsen given the aging global population.
Vascular Neurology Program, University of California-San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA. ovibes @ ucsd.edu
Bruce
B
Ovbiagele
D000367:Age Factors; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D016208:Databases, Factual; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012737:Sex Factors; D013997:Time Factors