A case-control study of baldness in relation to myocardial infarction in men.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the relationship between male pattern baldness and the risk of myocardial infarction in men under the age of 55 years.

DESIGN AND PARTICIPANTS: A hospital-based, case-control study was conducted in eastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Cases were men admitted to a hospital for a first nonfatal myocardial infarction (n = 665); controls were men admitted to the same hospitals with noncardiac diagnoses (n = 772). Extent of baldness was assessed using the 12-point modified Hamilton Baldness Scale; other information was obtained by personal interview. Among the controls, the prevalence of any baldness was 34%, while the prevalence of baldness involving the vertex scalp was 23%.

RESULTS: After allowing for age, the relative risk estimate for frontal baldness compared with no hair loss was 0.9 (95% confidence interval, 0.6 to 1.3), for baldness involving the vertex scalp it was 1.4 (95% confidence interval, 1.2 to 1.9). Risk of myocardial infarction increased as the degree of vertex baldness increased (P < .01); for severe vertex baldness the relative risk was 3.4 (95% confidence interval, 1.7 to 7.0). The relationship between vertex baldness and myocardial infarction was consistent within strata defined by age and other risk factors for coronary artery disease.

CONCLUSION: These data support the hypothesis that male pattern baldness involving the vertex scalp is associated with coronary artery disease in men under the age of 55 years.