Risk Factors for Mortality From Aortic Aneurysm and Dissection: Results From a 26‐Year Follow‐Up of a Community‐Based Population

BACKGROUND: Aortic aneurysm rupture and acute aortic dissection are life‐threatening conditions and represent an ever‐growing public health challenge. Comprehensive epidemiologic investigations for their risk factors are scant. We aimed to investigate risk factors associated with mortality from aortic diseases through analysis of a community‐based Japanese cohort. METHODS AND RESULTS: IPHS (Ibaraki Prefectural Health Study) comprises 95 723 participants who took part in municipal health checkups in 1993. Factors considered for analysis included age, sex, body mass index, blood pressure, serum lipids (high‐density lipoprotein [HDL] cholesterol, non‐HDL cholesterol, and triglycerides), diabetes, antihypertensive and lipid‐lowering drug use, and smoking and drinking habits. Cox proportional hazards models were applied to evaluate the associations between these variables and mortality from aortic diseases. During the median 26‐year follow‐up, 190 participants died of aortic aneurysm rupture, and 188 died of aortic dissection. An increased multivariable hazard ratio (HR) for mortality from total aortic diseases was observed for high systolic blood pressure (1.61 [1.00–2.59]), diastolic blood pressure (2.95 [1.95–4.48]), high non‐HDL cholesterol (1.63 [1.19–2.24]), low HDL cholesterol (1.86 [1.29–2.68]), and heavy (>20 cigarettes/day) smoking habit (2.46 [1.66–3.63]). A lower multivariable HR was observed for diabetes (0.50 [0.28–0.89]). CONCLUSIONS: Smoking habit, higher systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure levels, higher non‐HDL, and lower HDL cholesterol levels were positively associated with mortality from total aortic diseases, whereas diabetes was inversely associated.