Researchers from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden have calculated that a heart attack with complications takes an average of 11 years off a 50-year-old woman's life, while an 80-year-old man with preserved heart function loses about five months. The results of the study are published in the journal Circulation.

Researchers analyzed data on the health status and life expectancy of 335,000 people who suffered a myocardial infarction between 1991 and 2022. The study also used information on 1.6 million healthy volunteers from Statistics Sweden and the country's Ministry of Health and Social Affairs.

The researchers set out to find out how much a person's life expectancy is reduced after a heart attack. They found that heart attacks take the most years off in women and young adults. In the case of cardiac dysfunction, the life of a 50-year-old woman on average becomes shorter by 11 years, while a heart attack without complications takes five months from a man.

Scientists specified that even in the same age category, a heart attack had a greater negative impact on women's life expectancy than on men's. However, if the heart attack subsequently did not cause serious failures in myocardial function, gender differences disappeared.

The researchers cannot yet determine exactly why a heart attack with complications is more dangerous for women than for men. They specified that the reduction in life expectancy of the former is often explained by factors indirectly related to the heart attack itself, such as hypertension and diabetes.