Abstract
OBJECTIVE: Recent studies have shown that sex and age are associated with outcomes in patients with cardiomyopathy. The purpose of this study was to determine the all-cause mortality of dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) by age and sex. METHODS AND RESULTS: The patients were divided into non-elderly (age <60 years, n=811) and elderly (age ≥60 years, n=331) groups. No difference in the all-cause mortality rate was observed between elderly and non-elderly patients (27.2% vs 22.2%, log-rank χ(2)=2.604, P=0.107). Furthermore, no significant difference in mortality was observed between the male and female patients (23.3% vs 24.5%, log-rank χ(2)=0.707, P=0.400). However, subgroup analysis revealed that elderly male patients exhibited a higher mortality rate than non-elderly male patients (29.4% vs 21.3%, log-rank χ(2)=5.898, P=0.015), while no difference was observed between the elderly female patients and non-elderly female patients. In the Cox analysis, neither age nor sex was a significant independent predictor of all-cause mortality in patients with DCM. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, no significant difference in mortality between male and female patients or between the elderly and non-elderly patients was observed. Only among males was a difference in mortality observed; elderly male patients experienced greater mortality than that of non-elderly male patients. No effect of age or sex on all-cause mortality was observed in patients with DCM.