This is the first time the American Heart Association has put out a statement on heart attacks in women, which says women often have different causes, including the type of plaque buildup.
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Heart attack symptoms may not be as obvious in women as they are in men.
There are also sex specific differences in causes of heart attacks.
More women suffer from depression related to their heart disease – and that could hinder their treatment.
Heart disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women.
Risk factors for heart attacks also differ in degree of risk in men compared to women.
That’s in large part because different factors can cause heart disease in women, and the focus has been largely on what happens in men, the group said.
In fact, heart attacks strike more women than men in this country, and death rates from cardiovascular disease remain higher among women than men.
“Women fear breast cancer more than they fear heart disease”. They generally make up about 20% of the people enrolled, and even when women are included in trials, researchers often do not parse out the gender-specific data that could deepen scientists’ understanding of how the disease affects women.
The researchers suggest women need to know their numbers – blood pressure, cholesterol, glucose, body mass index – in order to take preventative measures to reduce the risk of heart attack.
The statement is the first scientific statement from the American Heart Association on heart attacks in women. Young black women have higher in-hospital death rates than their white counterparts. McSweeney said shortness of breath that interferes with everyday life can appear months before a woman has a heart attack, and those symptoms will often come and go. Compared to men, women can have less severe blockages that do not require any stents; yet the heart’s coronary artery blood vessels are damaged which results in decreased blood flow to the heart muscle.
Dr Mehta, the director of women’s cardiovascular health at Ohio State University in Columbus, added: “There is a lot at stake for women when there is a delay in treatment or lack of adherence to recommended therapies”.
The most common symptoms in both men and women are chest pain or discomfort.
Cardiac rehabilitation is prescribed less frequently for women and, when prescribed, women are less likely than men to participate or complete it.
Social, environmental and community differences also play a role in how women’s treatment outcomes differ from men’s.
Black women of any age have a higher incidence of heart attacks than white women.
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They should be proactive in talking with their doctors about ways to spot, prevent and treat coronary heart disease, which affects roughly 6.6 million USA women, Mehta said. Please see the full study for a list of all other authors’ relevant financial disclosures.
