More than 8,200 women in England and Wales could have survived their heart attacks had they simply been given the same quality of treatment as men, according to new research.
However, the study did not include all hospital admissions which occurred over the 10-year study period, and the researchers say the actual number of lives lost to unequal care is likely to be much higher.
Researchers from the University of Leeds used data from the UK’s national heart attack registry (MINAP) to analyse the treatment and outcomes of more than 690,000 people who were hospitalised for heart attacks in England and Wales between 2003 and 2013.
After adjusting for contributing factors, such as the fact women who’ve had a heart attack tend to be older than men, the researchers found women in the UK had more than double the rate of death in the 30 days following their heart attack than men.
They suggest that this may be, in part, explained by women being less likely to receive treatment and aftercare advice that’s up to scratch.
In terms of initial treatment for the heart attack, women were treated more slowly than men on a number of accounts.
Women who had a NSTEMI, a type of heart attack where the coronary artery is partially blocked, were 34 per cent less likely than men to receive a timely coronary angiography – a critical test used to diagnose the heart attack – within 72 hours of their first symptoms.
Women who had STEMI, a heart attack where the coronary artery is completely blocked, were 2.74 per cent less likely to receive timely reperfusion – emergency procedures including drugs and stents which help to clear blocked arteries and restore blood flow to the heart – compared to men.
After this slow treatment, women also received different (and potentially less effective) aftercare than men.
Women were 2.7 per cent less likely to be prescribed statins and 7.4 per cent less likely to be prescribed beta blockers when leaving hospital, drugs which help to lower their risk of having a second heart attack.
The researchers assessed the quality of care that men and women received following their heart attack based on ‘quality indicators’ – a checklist for the optimal care based on the international guidelines and endorsed by the European Society of Cardiology. Women’s care was less likely to meet 13 of the 16 heart attack quality indicators that were measured.
They estimated 8,243 deaths among women who were hospitalised with a heart attack in England and Wales could potentially have been prevented over the study period had they received care equal to that of men.
Each year in the UK around 70,000 women go to hospital due to a heart attack, and up to 25,000 women in the UK die each year from heart attacks – that’s three women every hour.
Commenting on the findings, Professor Sir Nilesh Samani, medical director of the British Heart Foundation, said: “We need to tackle the false perception that heart attacks are only a male health issue. This leads to inadequate care for women – both at the time of and after heart attacks – with fatal consequences.
“While further research is needed, this study has identified several areas where heart attacks are being treated differently between the sexes, which may contribute to the worse outcomes in women. If we start to address these now, it will make a huge difference and save lives.”
The researchers were funded by the British Heart Foundation and the Wellcome Trust and the study is published in the journal ‘Heart’.