3.4.4 – Gender
It was noted that most studies which recorded gender had a disparate
gender ratio between the case and control groups (Table 1). This is
partly explained as female patients have a lower prevalence of coronary
artery disease and are therefore more likely to be in the control group
however only Kamal et al gender matched each group(4). Although there was a reported increased
prevalence of DELC and CAD in male patients in most studies, only one
study (17) looked at the odds ratio for both genders
independently and found that women had a greater association between
DELC and CAD (Female OR 6.368 95% CI 2.961 to 13.694 vs Male OR 5.420
95% CI 2.804 to 10.477). No other studies reported results in
sufficient detail to allow comparison with this study.