© 2003 American Public Health Association
Gerdi Weidner is with the Preventive Medicine Research Institute, Sausalito, Calif. Virginia S. Cain is with the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md. Correspondence: Requests for reprints should be sent to Gerdi Weidner, PhD, Preventive Medicine Research Institute, 900 Bridgeway, Sausalito, CA 94965 (e-mail: gweidner{at}yahoo.com).
Why are men more susceptible to heart disease than women? Traditional risk factors cannot explain the gender gap in coronary heart disease (CHD) or the rapid increase in CHD mortality among middle-aged men in many of the newly independent states of Eastern Europe. However, Eastern European men score higher on stressrelated psychosocial factors than men living in the West. Comparisons between the sexes also reveal differences in psychosocial and behavioral coronary risk factors favoring women, indicating that womens coping with stressful events may be more cardioprotective. Mens greater susceptibility to heart disease, particularly observable in many Eastern European countries, poses unique threats to public health and points to solutions in the behavioral and social arena. This article has been cited by other articles:
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