Abstract Body (Do not enter title and authors here): Background
Ischemic heart disease (IHD) is the leading cause of death in the European Union (EU). Understanding variations by sex, income, and geography can help in tailoring effective public health policies.
Methods
We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of IHD using the Global Burden of Disease Study Database to examine trends in sex specific age-standardized mortality rate (ASMR)-to-age-standardized prevalence rate (ASPR) ratio (ASMR-to-ASPR index) per 100,000 inhabitants/year across the EU from 2005 to 2019.
Results
Men showed higher ASMR than women. However, the ASMR-to-ASPR index was notably higher in women than in men indicating that women who develop IHD have a higher risk of dying from the disease compared with their male counterparts. Despite a significant decline in ASMR across EU from 2005 to 2019 both among women and men, sex disparities in ASMR-to-ASPR index persisted with a women-to-men ratio ranging from 1.05 to 1.36. No significant relationship was found between country-specific ASMR or country income status and ASMR-to-ASPR index. Examples include Romania which displayed higher ASMR (men: 219.87, women: 143.54) compared with Germany (men: 107.22, women: 60.76), yet with smaller differences in ASMR-to-ASPR index between women and men (Romania: 6.54% vs 5.85%; ratio: 1.12 and Germany: 4.79% vs 3.80%; ratio: 1.26).
Conclusions
Mortality from IHD has decreased substantially among EU countries. However, the declines were accompanied by a persistently higher ASMR-to-ASPR index in women, indicating significant potential for further gains in closing the gender gap in IHD mortality.