Women half as likely as men to receive treatment for heart attacks

WOMEN are half as likely as men to receive treatment for a heart attack even after it is diagnosed, research shows.

Experts warned that “unconscious bias” means doctors are far less likely to think that female patients are suitable for interventions which can save lives. It follows evidence that 8,000 women have died needlessly from heart attacks in the last decade because they have not received the same standards of care as men.

Some of the death toll was blamed on a failure to diagnose cases in women, with medics too often assuming a less serious ailment. But the study by Edinburgh University found that even when women received a diagnosis, they were half as likely as men to be put on any of the main treatments available.

Even when female diagnosis rates were boosted by 42 per cent – thanks to more accurate tests – lack of treatment meant there was no fall in deaths, or repeat attacks, among women. The research involved 48,000 men and women at 10 accident and emergency hospitals in Scotland.

All were given a new type of test, increasingly used by the NHS, as it is better at identifying heart attacks, especially in women. Using the high sensitivity troponin blood test with specific gender thresholds increased the number of women identified as suffering a heart attack by 42 per cent.

But just 15 per cent were fitted with a stent, compared with 34 per cent of men, while 26 per cent were put on dual antiplatelet therapy, given to 43 per cent of men. Just 16 per cent of female patients were prescribed preventive statins, although 26 per cent of men were given them. The research was funded by the British Heart Foundation (BHF) and published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Dr Sonya Babu-narayan, associate medical director at the BHF said: “With more research, and greater awareness, we can close this heart attack gender gap.”