In the first year after a mini-stroke, also known as “transient ischemic attack” or TIA, elderly women have lower rates of stroke, cardiovascular events and death than elderly men, a study shows.

Dr. Judith H. Lichtman of the Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut and colleagues studied 76,108 women and 45,955 men after hospital discharge for TIA between January and December 2002. The study subjects had an average age of 79 years, 86 percent were white and all were Medicare beneficiaries.

Within the first 30 days after discharge for TIA, women were 30 percent less likely to have a stroke, 14 percent less likely to have a heart attack or other cardiac event, and 26 percent less likely to die, even after adjusting for other illnesses, including heart disease.

Within 1 year of discharge for TIA, women were 15 percent less likely to have a stroke, 19 percent less likely to have a cardiac event, and 22 percent less likely to die. The risk of repeat TIA was marginally higher in women than in men in the first year after discharge.

These data “suggest that women have a better prognosis than men within the first year after hospital discharge for TIA,” Lichtman and colleagues conclude in a report in the medical journal Stroke.

“Further investigation into the underlying causes for these sex-based differences may help improve care and outcomes for both men and women after TIA and will be critical in planning for the future healthcare needs of these patients,” Lichtman and colleagues add.

SOURCE: Stroke June 2009.