Hospitalization for Pneumonia Is Associated with Risk for Subsequent Cardiovascular Disease

In the short term, risk for incident cardiovascular disease (CVD) is higher after respiratory infections, but whether long-term risk for CVD is affected is unclear. Researchers analyzed data from two prospective cohort studies of CVD risk factors to compare risk for incident CVD in 1300 patients hospitalized with pneumonia and in 2600 age-matched controls. In both studies, patients with pneumonia were more likely to have several traditional CVD risk factors.

In a study of older patients (mean age, 73), risk for incident CVD in days 31 to 90 following hospitalization (after the known initial higher-risk period), adjusted for a wide range of CVD risk factors, was about three times higher in patients hospitalized with pneumonia than in controls…