Women still receive lower-quality heart attack care than men

Reported by Susan Aldridge, PhD, medical journalist

Despite an effort at quality improvement, women heart attack survivors in Michigan hospitals tend to do worse than men.
There is much that can be done to improve the outcome of a heart attack survivor. They can improve their lifestyle, supported by counseling, and receive medications like statins and aspirin. Many hospitals are now making big efforts to adhere more closely to guidelines for heart attack after-care. What's interesting, thought, is that women still receive lower-quality heart attack care than men.

This was the conclusion of a study of nearly 4,000 survivors of heart attack in 33 Michigan hospitals before and after a big push to improve quality of care. Although survival rates improved, there was still a gap between men and women - with women getting less benefit from the improvements. Men, for example, were much more likely to be prescribed all the meds they needed to stay well. The researchers wonder if the gap arises because women presenting with a heart attack tend to be a bit older and so doctors think they don't have as much to gain from counseling or prescriptions of, say, statins. Whatever the reason, everyone - whatever age or gender - needs to be given the same opportunities for a good outcome following a heart attack.

Source
University of Michigan Health System 10th July 2006