It is also a major cause of premature death, with mortality rates increasing significantly in postmenopausal women. These two conditions rank first and second for all-cause mortality in women by specific disease. This category includes conditions such as hypertensive disease, rheumatic fever and diseases of the arteries, arterioles and capillaries. In 1991, CVD in women was responsible for more than four million hospital days, more than any other condition, including cancer, pregnancy and neurological ailments. Strokes were responsible for more than double the hospital days of coronary heart disease.
Women spend more days in hospital due to stroke than do men.
This dollar value is an underestimate of the total economic burden of CVD, as it does not account for the direct economic costs that cannot be broken down by disease category and sex, nor does it include the indirect economic costs of the disease, notably the loss of future income due to premature mortality and the cost of disability. From 1991 to 1993, CVD was responsible for more than 260,000 PYLL before age 75, following all cancers and accidents, poisonings and violence in magnitude. In the same period almost 130,000 PYLL were attributable to CHD, ranking it third after breast and lung cancers. There is growing consensus that this is due to the loss of the protective effect of estrogen after menopause. Time Trends Both CHD and stroke mortality rates have decreased since 1950 in women aged 30 and over.