Short people have a significantly higher risk of developing heart disease.
Over the years, there has been conflicting evidence on whether shortness is associated with heart disease. Height is used to calculate body mass index (a measurement of body fat), which is widely used to quantify risk of coronary heart disease.
To see the association between height and risk of developing cardiovascular diseases, researchers analysed data from 52 studies that included more than 3 million people. Short people were considered those under 5’3” and tall people were just over 5’8”. Separated by gender, short men were under 5’5”, and short women were under 5’. Tall men were over 5’9”, and tall women were over 5’5”.
Compared with the tallest people, the shortest people were almost 1.5 times more likely to die from cardiovascular disease or to live with heart disease or suffer a heart attack. Considering men and women separately, short men were 37 percent more likely to die from any cause compared with tall men, and short women were 55 percent more likely to die from any cause compared with taller women.
The researchers speculated that shorter people have smaller coronary arteries that may get blocked earlier in life due to other risk factors such as poverty, poor nutrition and infections that result in poor early life growth.