Heart disease risk higher for first-borns
Being an eldest child increases the risk of heart disease, scientists said today.
The reason is unclear, but the researchers speculate that firstborns may be more likely to have personalities that make them heart disease prone.
A total of 348 people were studied who had been admitted to a cardiovascular rehabilitation unit in Milan.
Birth order, age, gender, family history of coronary heart disease and other risk factors were recorded.
The researchers found that 46.7% of the heart patients were firstborn - almost double the proportion in the general population.
The cumulative number of risk factors per patient was almost identical between firstborns and their younger brothers and sisters.
Dr Maurizio Ferratini, head of the rehabilitation unit at the Fondazione Don Carlo Gnocchi, said: ‘‘Because we found the same kinds of risk factors in both groups, we suspect primogeniture (being the eldest child) is the likely explanation and should be regarded as a determinant of CHD that is independent of other risk factors studied.’’
The research, presented today at the American Heart Association’s Asia Pacific Scientific Forum in Honolulu, was not designed to identify the reasons why firstborns should suffer more heart disease.
But personality may play a role in making eldest children vulnerable, according to the scientists.
Dr Ferratini said: ‘‘The family context frequently orients them along a perfectionist path, giving them a determined, competitive, winning and aggressive attitude - aspects frequently observed in subjects with a type-A personality, also known as ‘coronary-prone’.’’
Type-A people were hard-driven, quick to anger, and highly motivated.
