Functional disability of elderly patients with long-term coronary heart disease: a sex-stratified analysis.

The survival of elderly women with angina has improved greatly in recent years, but little is known about the functional capacity of these women over the longer duration of their disease. This article analyzes the incidence and determinants of functional disability in a cohort of 1,001 females and males hospitalized with angina or other acute coronary diseases in 1976-77 and followed through 1985. Proportional hazards and logistic models are utilized to examine sex interactions in long-term disability outcomes. Female survivors with angina are shown to be at significantly higher risk for diminished functional capacity when compared to men as well as to women with other heart disease. Thus, the extended survival and higher incidence of angina among elderly women will likely result in an increased societal burden of disablement in the aged population.