Women twice as likely to die from heart attacks

A new report in the American Heart Association Journal shows women hospitalized for a specific type of heart attack, S-T elevation myocardial infarction, are twice as likely to die than men.

“There’s disparity and outcome and care between women and men after they are present with heart attacks,“ explained study author Dr. Hani Jneid. 

The study found that some recommended treatments are delayed and underused in women.

Women were less likely to receive aspirin, beta blockers or other potentially life saving procedures such as angioplasty within the first few hours of hospital arrival.

The study analyzed data from the American Heart Associations, “Get With The Guidelines” program,
to determine if recent efforts to improve heart attack care at hospitals had closed the gender gap.

They reviewed close to 80,000 heart attack patients admitted to hospitals between 2001 and 2006.

One key finding: There were no gender differences in the “in hospital” survival after heart attacks in facilities that participated in the “Get with the guidelines program”.

Researchers say it’s more evidence that all physicians and hospitals should pay closer attention to women in the high risk group experiencing the more severe type of heart attack, especially within the first 24 hours.

The study could not determine how much the increased mortality of women had to do with physicians’ failures to administer therapies to women verses appropriate decision making based on biological and other differences between men and women.