A cardoiologist want inquiries made into why there are apparent inequities in how male and female heart and stroke patients are treated.
"Women's heart health has not kept pace with men's," Dr. Beth Abramson of the Heart and Stroke Foundation said Wednesday.
"Heart disease was thought of as a man's disease. But we need to make women and men alike aware that this is an equal opportunity killer," she said:
- In 1973, heart disease killed 45,000 men and 34,000 women.
- In 2003, 37,000 men died of heart ailments, but the number of women killed rose to the same figure.
Abramson raised the possibility of gender bias.
The 2007 Heart and Stroke Foundation Annual Report on Canadians' Health found that women are less likely to be treated by a specialist, transferred to another facility for treatment and to receive certain treatments like catheterization.
The analysis found that a woman's risk of dying within 30 days of a heart attack is 16 per cent higher than for a man. Her risk of dying within a month of a stroke is 11 per cent higher than for a man.
The reasons behind the numbers are unclear, but the foundation suggests that some factors at play may have to do with biological factors, problems with the health system, or social factors.
For years, it was assumed that care differences occurred because women tended to be older and sicker at the point they were hospitalized. But the statistics released with the 2007 report used studies that controlled for age and other health conditions.
Abramson says there are women who may be under-served on the front lines compared to men. Her foundation is calling on the health care system to work on prevention, as well as treatments tailored to women's needs.
The report found that only 32 per cent of women see a cardiologist after a heart attack, compared with 38 per cent of men. Seeing a specialist is important, the foundation says, since the risk of dying is 47 per cent lower for patients treated by a cardiologist, when you account for age and other conditions.
Dr. Sonia Anand, a vascular medicine specialist at McMaster University, told The Canadian Press that women's symptoms usually differ from those of men and some doctors may not pick up their significance.
"All doctors are trained to recognize typical symptoms of chest pain, but women seem to have a different set of symptoms compared to men," Anand said from Hamilton. "So oftentimes, women who present with atypical symptoms are not sent on for a coronary angiogram (a kind of X-ray) because the treating physician doesn't think it's heart disease."
Survey finds many unaware of risks
The Heart and Stroke Foundation also conducted a survey of Canadians aged 35 and over and found that many are not aware of women's increased death risk from heart attack and stroke.
Fifty-three per cent of men erroneously thought the number of heart and stroke deaths was somewhat or a lot less in women compared to men. Only 27 per cent of women made this error.
Of those without a history of heart disease or stroke, 42 of the men believed it was somewhat or very likely they would develop it at some point in their lives, but only 24 per cent thought their partner or spouse would.
Women, on the other hand, were more realistic about their chances: 45 per cent thought it was likely they would develop heart disease or stroke and 43 per cent that their partner would.
With a report from CTV's Scott Laurie and files from The Canadian Press
