Impact of Heart Attack on Women
(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- In the past, heart attacks were considered a man's problem. But heart attacks are a major health concern for women, too. Now a new study finds women who have a heart attack appear to be more seriously affected than men.
Unstable angina is a heart condition caused by insufficient oxygen reaching the heart muscle that causes pain in the chest. Research has shown that gender does play a role in the probability of death from unstable angina or a heart attack. Researchers from the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada, conducted a study to examine both unstable angina and heart attack to explain this gender difference.
For the study, researchers used a database of 22,967 patients who had a heart attack and 8,441 patients who had unstable angina. All of the patients were seen and discharged from a hospital in Canada between 1993 and 2000. Researchers compared the differences in outcomes when looking at men vs. women.
Researchers report older women with more health problems were frequently diagnosed with unstable angina. Women were also 30 percent less likely to undergo a procedure to unblock clogged vessels than men. The study found the five-year death rate was similar between men and women after suffering unstable angina. However, women were more likely to die after a heart attack than men. After adjusting for other health factors, researchers found gender was a significant predictor of five-year death rate after unstable angina but not after a heart attack. The research also found women younger than 65 were at a higher risk for problems after a heart attack.
Study authors write, "In conclusion, our population-based research demonstrated that women have a survival advantage when afflicted with unstable angina; however, this advantage is lost when afflicted with heart attack." Researchers say this shows that a heart attack has a more serious impact on a woman than a man.
This article was reported by Ivanhoe.com, who offers Medical Alerts by e-mail every day of the week. To subscribe, go to: http://www.ivanhoe.com/newsalert/.
SOURCE: Archives of Internal Medicine, 2003;163:2476-2484
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