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Abstract
Objectives To compare cardiovascular risk factors as well as rates of cardiovascular diseases in middle-aged women from urban areas in Scotland and Sweden.
Design Comparative cross-sectional study.
Setting Data from the general population in urban areas of Scotland and the general population in two major Swedish cities in southeast Sweden, south of Stockholm.
Participants Comparable data of middle-aged women (40–65 years) from the Scottish Health Survey (n=6250) and the Swedish QWIN study (n=741) were merged together into a new dataset (n=6991 participants).
Main outcome measure We compared middle-aged women in urban areas in Sweden and Scotland regarding risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD), CVD diagnosis, anthropometrics, psychological distress and lifestyle.
Results In almost all measurements, there were significant differences between the countries, favouring the Swedish women. Scottish women demonstrated a higher frequency of alcohol consumption, smoking, obesity, low vegetable consumption, a sedentary lifestyle and also more psychological distress. For doctor-diagnosed coronary heart disease, there were also significant differences, with a higher prevalence among the Scottish women.
Conclusions This is one of the first studies that clearly shows that Scottish middle-aged women are particularly affected by a worse profile of CVD risks. The profound differences in CVD risk and outcome frequency in the two populations are likely to have arisen from differences in the two groups of women's social, cultural, political and economic environments.
- cardiovascular risk factors
- lifestyle
- psychological distress
- middle-aged women
- comparative study
- public health
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Footnotes
Contributors TF and CW were responsible for the study concept and design. JF and CB were responsible for acquisition of data in Scotland. All authors were responsible for analysis and interpretation of data. CW drafted the manuscript, and TF, JF, CB, AKJ and SN undertook for critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content. CW and TF did the statistical analysis. CW has full access to all of the data in the study, takes responsibility for the integrity of the data and accuracy of the data analysis and had the final responsibility to submit for publication.
Funding This work was partially funded by the Swedish Heart and Lung Association (E136-15/E106/13) and Clinic ALF funds, Region Östergötland, Sweden (LiO-446241). The Research and PhD studies Committee (FUN), Linköping University, Sweden (LiU-2014-020251).
Competing interests None declared.
Patient consent Obtained.
Ethics approval This study was approved by the Regional Ethics Committee at Linkoping University, Sweden, Dnr. 2014/240-32 and Dnr. 2015/240-32. Ethical approval for the Scottish surveys (2008-2011) was granted from the Multi-Centre Research Ethics Committee for Wales (REC reference numbers: 07/MRE09/55 and 08/MRE09/62).
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
Data sharing statement Extra data can be accessed via the Dryad data repository at http://datadryad.org/ with the doi:10.5061/dryad.g7n7g.