A British Hearth Foundation report revealed that women who suffer heart attack are dying unnecessarily because of inequalities in diagnosis, treatment and aftercare.
The researchers found that women died unnecessarily after a heart attack because of these health care inequalities. The report showed that over 8,000 women in England and Wales died unnecessarily after a heart attack over a 10-year period.
The report stated that "Unconscious biases are limiting the survival chances of women." It discovered that some commonly held myths, such as heart disease and heart attacks only affects men, have made women unaware of their risk and made them slow to seek medical help.
There have been significant developments in heart attack treatment since the 1960s when seven out of 10 heart attacks in the UK are fatal compared to today where 7 out of 10 survives. However, Dr. Sonya Babu-Narayan, associate medical director of the British Heart Foundation, claimed that women are missing out on this.
She said: "Heart attacks have never been more treatable. Yet women are dying needlessly because heart attacks are often seen as a man's disease, and women don't receive the same standard of treatment as men."
She pointed out that studies had "revealed inequalities at every stage of a woman's medical journey, and although complex to dissect, they suggest unconscious biases are limiting the survival chances of women".
The report findings showed that women often delayed seeking help, they were more likely to receive an incorrect diagnosis and substandard treatment compared to men, risk factors, such as smoking and high blood pressure, increase heart attack chances more in women, and the quality of aftercare was also substandard.
Chris Gale, professor of cardiovascular medicine at the University of Leeds, claimed: "This problem is not unique to the UK. Studies across the globe have also revealed gender gaps in treatment, suggesting this is a deeply entrenched and complex issue."
