Short stature and coronary heart disease: a 35‐year follow‐up of the Finnish cohorts of The Seven Countries Study

Forsén T, Eriksson J, Qiao Q, Tervahauta M, Nissinen A, Tuomilehto J (National Public Health Institute, Helsinki, and University of Kuopio, Kuopio, Finland). Short stature and coronary heart disease: a 35‐year follow‐up of the Finnish cohorts of The Seven Countries Study. J Intern Med 2000; 248: 326–332. Objectives. To examine whether short stature is associated with an increased risk of coronary heart disease. Design. Follow‐up study. Setting. Two geographically defined areas in eastern and western Finland. Subjects. A total of 1441 men who were free of coronary heart disease at the start of the follow‐up. Main outcome measures. Hazard ratios for fatal and non‐fatal coronary heart disease Results. Height was inversely related to fatal coronary heart disease and incident non‐fatal coronary heart disease during the follow‐up. These relationships persisted after adjusting for other major cardiovascular risk factors. Comparing the high‐risk area in eastern Finland with the low‐risk area in south‐western Finland, no difference in fatal coronary heart disease and cumulative incidence of non‐fatal coronary heart disease was seen in tall men. The increase in risk of coronary heart disease death was 19% for a 10 cm decrease in height (OR = 0.81, 95% CI = 0.68–0.95). Conclusions. Our results show that short stature is an independent risk factor for coronary heart disease. Differences in stature partly explain the Finnish east–west difference in the incidence of coronary heart disease.