Trends in Cardiovascular Risk Factors Among Women Veterans

Ebrahimi R, Leng M, Shroyer AL. Trends in Cardiovascular Risk Factors Among Women Veterans. [Abstract]. Circulation. 2022 Oct 30; 146(Suppl_1):A11245.

Introduction: Women Veterans (WV) have been identified as a high-risk population for developing ischemic heart disease (IHD). Trends for prevalence of IHD risk factors for WV over the past two decades is unknown. The goal of this study was to evaluate these trends. Methods: Veterans Affairs (VA) electronic health records were used to identify WV aged 18 years who visited any VAs nationwide from 1/1/2001-12/31/2017. Risk factors studied included diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, smoking, and obesity. Prevalence of each risk factor was calculated based on the number of patients alive, and of those, the number of patients with the specific risk factor on December 31st of each year. Diagnosis of each risk factor was based on the International Classification of Disease versions 9 and 10 codes. Results: Table 1 reveals the prevalence of each risk factor from 2001-2017. During this period the prevalence of these risk factors increased by, 28% for hypertension, 67% for diabetes, 71% for obesity, 140% for hyperlipidemia and 178% for smoking. Alarmingly, in 2017, the prevalence of obesity in WV was > 43%. Conclusions: The prevalence of each of these cardiovascular risk factors significantly increased from 2001-2017 in WV. Research towards prevention of these risk factors is warranted in this high-risk population.