Cardiac Health in the News: Why Women Are More Likely To Die of a Heart Attack

An Indian researcher at Yale School of Medicine has found that women have longer hospital stays and are more likely to die after a heart attack than men.

Aakriti Gupta, the researcher in question says:

"Younger women are a vulnerable yet understudied group with worse cardiac risk profiles and worse outcomes after a heart attack as compared with younger men."

In the study, Gupta and her team analyzed 230,684 hospitalizations for heart attack in patients age 30 to 54 in a national database from 2001 to 2010. The study found that heart attack hospitalization rates for patients under age 55 have not declined as quickly as they have for Medicare-age patients, which have seen a 20 percent drop.

Men were more likely to have high cholesterol while women, especially black women, were more likely to also have hypertension, diabetes and heart failure.

As Gupta points out:

"This shows that we need to raise awareness of the importance of controlling cardiovascular risk factors like diabetes, high blood pressure and smoking in younger patients."

The study, published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, also found that younger women may benefit from more aggressive control of modifiable cardiovascular risk factors, including early identification and treatment of high blood pressure, high cholesterol, obesity, smoking and diabetes.

The bottom line:

If you are a younger woman with any of these cardiovascular risk factors, consider talking to your doctor about your treatment to mitigate these risks even further.

Slidell Memorial is the most experienced in cardiac services on the Northshore, consistently being first to offer new, innovative services in cardiac care. We invite you to learn more about our cardiac services, and our new state-of-the-art Heart Center, and to contact us to set up a consultation with one of our caring clinicians today.