Heart Disease: Environment, Stress, and Gender (Nato Science Series. Series I, Life and Behavioural Sciences, V. 327)

Why do men get more heart disease than women? Recent global trends in heart disease show that traditional coronary risk factors, such as elevated blood pressure and cholesterol are poor candidates in explaining the gender gap in heart disease. Changes in these risk factors also cannot explain the recent cardiovascular disease epidemic among middle-aged men in Eastern Europe. This book focuses on environmental, behavioural, and psychosocial variables, as well as new risk factors of a biological nature in an attempt to understand the gender gap in heart disease. It combines perspectives from numerous disciplines, such as demography, epidemiology, medicine, nutrition, sociology, and psychology to explore the environmental, behavioural, and psychosocial influences on men's greater susceptibility to heart disease.