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Male pattern baldness linked to CHD
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New research revealed an association between male pattern baldness and increased risk for CHD.
Researchers performed a meta-analysis of three cohort studies and three case-control studies comprising 36,990 participants. All studies were published between 1993 and 2008.
Analysis of the cohort studies revealed that men with severe baldness were 32% more likely to develop CHD when compared with men who were not bald. The researchers also found that bald or severely bald men aged younger than 55 to 60 years were 44% more likely to develop CHD (RR=1.44; 95% CI, 1.11-1.86).
In the case-control studies, which compared the CV health of bald vs. not-bald men, those with evidence of baldness were 70% more likely to develop CHD. Younger men had an 84% increased risk.
Three studies assessed degree of baldness using the modified Hamilton scale. In these studies, CHD risk was related to severity of baldness, but only on the vertex, or the top/crown of the head. Extensive vertex baldness increased CHD risk by 48%; moderate vertex baldness by 36%; and mild vertex baldness by 18%.
Additionally, researchers analyzed four differing grades of baldness: none, frontal, top/crown and combined. They found that severity of baldness also affected risk for CHD. Compared with men with no evidence of balding, those with frontal and top/crown baldness were 69% more likely to develop CHD; those with top/crown baldness were 52% more likely; and those with frontal baldness were 22% more likely.
A receding hairline was not associated with increased risk for CHD in this analysis.
"[Our] findings suggest that vertex baldness is more closely associated with systemic atherosclerosis than with frontal baldness," the researchers said in a press release. "Thus, cardiovascular risk factors should be reviewed carefully in men with vertex baldness, especially younger men [who should] probably be encouraged to improve their CV risk profile."
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
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