The Associated Press
HOUSTON — Women hospitalized with heart attacks still don’t get the treatment they need and are more likely to die than men if they suffer a massive heart attack, a new study of U.S. hospitals shows.
Overall, women survive heart attacks about as well as men when they are under a hospital’s care. But the study found that a gender gap remains when women have the most serious type of heart attack. Women also get less of the recommended medicines and procedures than men, or it takes longer to get them.
“We’re doing better but not good enough for women,” said Dr. Hani Jneid, lead author of the study from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.
The data came from 420 hospitals enrolled in an American Heart Association program to get doctors to follow guidelines for treating heart attack patients. Previous research suggested that women’s heart attacks were treated less aggressively. The research was funded by the heart association, and the findings were reported last week in the group’s medical journal, Circulation.
Dr. Nieca Goldberg, a cardiologist who specializes in women’s care, said the study suggests that women’s heart attack symptoms still are not being taken seriously. Some women don’t have typical symptoms such as chest pains, she said, but may have pain lower in their bodies or severe shortness of breath.
“This really continues to be very disappointing,” said Goldberg, who is director of the Women’s Heart Center at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York. “I think my colleagues need to get on the stick.”