By: Jean Johnson for Heart1
It may be true that we’ve “come a long way baby.” Still, given the history of women in America the observation “I’ve been down so long it looks like up” can come to mind. New findings that analyzed 2,857 heart attack survivors attest to the idea that women do not receive the attention men do when it comes to heart attack care.
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Sobering Statistics
Women are 20 percent more likely than men to die from a heart attack.
Women receive less aggressive treatment than men following a heart attack.
Women are 1.6 times more likely than men to die after coronary angioplasty.
More women than men require bypass surgery or suffer a heart attack after angioplasty.
Women are less likely than men to receive life saving drugs such as aspirin, beta blockers, or lidocaine for heart attacks.
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In a presentation to the Annual Scientific Session of the American Cardiovascular Center, lead researcher and clinical director of the University of Michigan Cardiovascular Center, Kim Eagle M.D. said, “We owe women heart attack patients a full examination of the factors that might lead them to receive fewer of the proven drugs and lifestyle tips that men receive. Now that we know that they get just as much mortality benefit as men when quality standards are applied to their care, we must find ways to ensure that they are all treated according to those standards.”
Said May Doty of Gresham, Oregon of the study, “The fancy study doesn’t surprise me. I had heart trouble on and off back 15 to 20 years ago, and the doctors never did help me get straightened out.” When asked what finally worked, Doty replied, “It was simple. I got a divorce. Once I left my husband – no more problems. Not a skip of the beat since.”
Indeed, a report at the Second International Conference on Women, Heart Disease and Stroke in Orlando early in 2005, pointed to links between marital strain and heart disease. Specifically to women who tend to avoid conflict with their husbands and generally keep their feelings to themselves are more prone to develop heart problems than their more vocal peers.
Professor of law, Vernellia R. Randall notes similar trends in cardiac care for women. She points out that women are 20 percent more likely than men to die from a heart attack and women are 1.6 times more likely than men to die after coronary angioplasty. Even if women do survive heart attacks, studies show that women receive less aggressive treatment than men following a heart attack. They are less likely than men to receive life saving drugs, such as aspirin, beta blockers, or lidocaine for heart attacks. Also, more women than men require bypass surgery or suffer a heart attack after angioplasty.
Eagle is also the co-director of the Guidelines Applied in Practice (GAP) Project in Michigan that provides standards on cardiac care. In particular GAP lists proven medications, tests, and advice on smoking cessation, weight loss, diet, and exercise that health care professionals need to deliver to all patients regardless of gender.
“We’re troubled by the gender differences we found, though we remain encouraged by the overall effect of post-heart attack quality improvement efforts,” Eagle said.
Women, then, still have a ways to go when it comes to parity in cardiac care. That the subject is on the table, though, is reason for optimism. Now all the healthcare industry needs to do is demonstrate via the statistics that it truly is open to change and willing to apply the same high standards to all patients who come through its doors.
