A large decades-long study found that women with common autoimmune diseases were more than twice as likely as men with those conditions to die because of cardiovascular issues such as coronary artery disease, arrhythmia, stroke, or heart attack.
The disparity in deaths between women and men was greatest in people with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) — women with RA were 3 times more likely to die of heart disease compared with men.
“Our study highlights the significant burden of cardiovascular disease in people with immune-mediated inflammatory diseases, which disproportionately affect women,” says senior study author Heba S. Wassif, MD, MPH, director of cardio-rheumatology at Cleveland Clinic in Ohio.
Immune-mediated inflammatory diseases are a subset of autoimmune conditions and include rheumatoid arthritis as well as Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, psoriasis, asthma, multiple sclerosis, and lupus.
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Inflammation Caused by Autoimmune Conditions Can Damage the Heart
Estimates suggest that between 24 and 50 million people in the United States have an autoimmune disease, and as many as 4 out of 5 of those people are women.
While it’s already been established that chronic inflammation from autoimmune conditions can damage the heart, many people living with these conditions aren’t aware of their increased risk, says Dr. Wassif.
A study of over 22 million people in the United Kingdom found that having 1 of 19 different autoimmune conditions increased heart disease risk as much as traditional factors like smoking or type 2 diabetes.
Cardiovascular disease doesn’t only include heart disease. It’s an umbrella term for all types of ailments that affect the heart or blood vessels, including:
Cardiovascular Deaths Dropped Over 20 Years, but Gender Gap Remains
For this trial, investigators focused on cardiovascular deaths between 1999 and 2020 in people with one of three conditions: rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and systemic sclerosis, also called scleroderma.
Out of over 281,000 deaths tied to these diseases over this time period, more than 127,000 were linked to cardiovascular causes.
“If you look at the data from a ‘glass half full’ perspective, the overall cardiovascular disease-related death rate in this group fell by more than half,” says Wassif.
Deaths decreased from 3.9 to 2.1 per 100,000 women and from 1.7 to 1.2 per 100,000 men.
In other words, although heart disease deaths went down for everyone, the gender gap remained.
“There is a common perception that people with immune-mediated inflammatory diseases primarily die from infections or kidney disease. However, our study revealed that one-third of deaths in this population were due to cardiovascular disease, highlighting the significant burden of heart disease in these patients,” said lead study author Issam Motairek, MD, an internal medicine resident at Cleveland Clinic, in a press release.
While it’s certainly good news that the overall number of cardiovascular deaths in these groups of people have gone down, the study really reveals a troubling gap between women and men, says Michael Garshick, MD, a cardiologist and cardio-rheumatologist at NYU Langone Health in New York City, who was not involved in the research.
“Interestingly, when the authors also looked at sex differences in deaths due to cancer, infection, and respiratory illnesses, there was much less of a disparity, or in some cases, there was equal risk. That really highlighted the differences in outcomes between men and women when it comes to cardiovascular disease,” says Dr. Garshick.
Why Are Women With Autoimmune Diseases at Higher Risk?
“I think this is compounded by the fact that women are enrolled less frequently in clinical trials, and so there’s really a treatment gap in women in general,” he says.
More research is needed to investigate the “why,” says Wassif. The higher number of deaths in women could also be related to other diseases they have, access to treatment, or differences in how symptoms present themselves, the authors wrote.
Managing Autoimmune Conditions and Heart Disease Risk Can Improve Outcomes
It’s likely that the downward trend for cardiovascular death is due to both autoimmune disease treatment and cardiovascular treatments, says Wassif.
Biologic therapies that are used to manage many autoimmune conditions can help reduce systemic inflammation, which means less damage to the heart.
Medications like statins and high blood pressure drugs have also been shown to reduce the risk of early death due to events like heart attack and stroke, the authors wrote.
Don’t Put Off Taking Care of Your Heart Health
A big lesson here is that everyone with an autoimmune condition — especially women — should advocate for themselves to make sure that they are getting the help they need to manage cholesterol levels, blood pressure, and other risk factors, says Garshick.
People with autoimmune conditions often have a lot of different doctors and health issues to manage, he points out: “Because of that, addressing cardiovascular risk may keep getting pushed to ‘the next appointment,’ over and over again, sometimes until it’s too late.”
There can also be some hesitancy because people are afraid about the side effects of certain medications, says Garshick. “I tell my patients that there’s no reason in 2025 that we can’t get you on an effective medication to lower your cholesterol, treat your diabetes, or manage your blood pressure that you can tolerate. We have so many great options to manage your risk factors,” he says.
EDITORIAL SOURCES
Everyday Health follows strict sourcing guidelines to ensure the accuracy of its content, outlined in our editorial policy. We use only trustworthy sources, including peer-reviewed studies, board-certified medical experts, patients with lived experience, and information from top institutions.
Stanford Medicine-Led Study Shows Why Women Are At Greater Risk of Autoimmune Disease. Stanford Medicine News Center. February 1, 2024.
Conrad N et al. Autoimmune Diseases and Cardiovascular Risk: a Population-Based Study on 19 Autoimmune Diseases and 12 Cardiovascular Diseases in 22 Million Individuals in the UK. The Lancet. September 3, 2022.
Tom Gavin joined Everyday Health as copy chief in 2022 after a lengthy stint as a freelance copy editor. He has a bachelor's degree in psychology from College of the Holy Cross.
Prior to working for Everyday Health, he wrote, edited, copyedited, and fact-checked for books, magazines, and digital content covering a range of topics, including women's health, lifestyle, recipes, restaurant reviews, travel, and more. His clients have included Frommer's, Time-Life, and Google, among others.
He lives in Brooklyn, New York, where he likes to spend his time making music, fixing too-old electronics, and having fun with his family and the dog who has taken up residence in their home.
Becky Upham has worked throughout the health and wellness world for over 25 years. She's been a race director, a team recruiter for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, a salesperson for a major pharmaceutical company, a blogger for Moogfest, a communications manager for Mission Health, a fitness instructor, and a health coach.
Upham majored in English at the University of North Carolina and has a master's in English writing from Hollins University.
Upham enjoys teaching cycling classes, running, reading fiction, and making playlists.
