By Emily Miller
Health professionals have known for years that men and women differ greatly when it comes to certain health conditions. Being underrepresented for specific health conditions can lead to misdiagnoses, worsen health conditions and high health insurance premiums.
In 2010, the cost of cardiovascular disease in the U.S. was about $444 billion and accounts for $1 of every $6 spend on health care in the U.S. These includes the treatment cost of the following:
- Heart conditions
- Stroke
- Peripheral artery disease
- High blood pressure
The latest gender-specific research on heart disease continues to show differences between women and men, yet gaps remain in how to best diagnose, treat and prevent this number one killer of women, according to studies published in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, an American Heart Association journal.
With the month of February being dedicated to heart health awareness, researchers and health professionals would like to shed some light on how women are currently being underrepresented in heart disease research.
Because of this gap, physicians lack important information about how women might respond differently to heart disease, have different symptoms and need different diagnostic approaches and treatments.
“Women have been generally underrepresented in studies, leading to a lack of key information about whether women react differently to heart disease, if our diagnostic methods work as well as in women as in men, and it women respond to treatment differently,” said Harlan Krumholz M.D., S.M., editor of the journal, director of the Center of Outcomes Research and Evaluation at Yale-New Haven Hospital and a professor in Yale’s school of medicine and public health. “Dedicating a women’s themed section in this research journal offers the latest in quality studies on women and reminds us about the importance of this area of investigation.”
“In the future, if we really want to answer all the questions we have about gender differences, then we need studies that are large enough, focused enough and with the intent from the start to illuminate the issues about sex differences,” said Krumholz.
Here are some of the key findings from the recent study on women’s heart disease:
- Women tend to inaccurately assess their own risk of heart disease and often delay medical attention
- Men and women experience different social health changes before and after receiving cardioverter-defibrillators
- Among people with atrial fibrillation (AFib), women are at higher risk for stroke then men
- Men and women have the same risk of having heart failure, but women are more likely to die
- Women are more likely to die from heart failure because they are less likely to be referred for therapies and if referred, receive them at a later stage
The American Heart Association CEO, Nancy Brown, noted that big change can be made to help women’s heart disease risk awareness through the Go Red For Women and other initiatives, but that there is still a lot of work to be done.
“We’ve come a long way from an American Heart Association study in 1997 that showed only 8 percent of women understood that heart disease was their greatest health threat, to the association’s most recent statistics, which indicates 54 percent of women are aware that heart disease is the number one killer of women,” said Brown. “Despite these wins, women are still dying prematurely, and more women than men continue to die from cardiovascular disease. Significantly increasing women’s representation in clinical trials and studies, so they receive the right cardiovascular diagnoses and appropriate treatment is critical.”
Along with amplifying research for women’s heart disease, there are other certain measures that women can be taking to better protect themselves against heart disease.
The first step should be to evaluating one’s current health insurance policy to ensure that adequate coverage is being provided and to learn exactly what your policy covers. According to the Affordable Care Act, individuals cannot be declined coverage due to heart disease or any other preexisting condition.
Once adequate coverage has been established, consider getting disability insurance even though you may be healthy now. This type of insurance can replace some of your lost income if you ever become disabled by heart disease or another condition and can’t work. If you currently have a heart condition, it will be more difficult to get insurance but it is not impossible.
And finally, we have all seen the suggestions for heart disease lifestyle changes before and, most of the time, have ignored them. Yet they really can make a difference. While that monthly gym membership may seem pricey now, it’s a lot expensive than treating coronary artery disease in the future.
