Women post heart attack are less likely than men to receive the same treatment, advice and referral to cardiac rehabilitation, a new Heart Foundation survey has found.
The survey of more than 400 heart attack survivors found that women are less likely than men to receive advice on how to control or reduce their heart disease risk factors (76% vs. 85%) or be referred to and attend cardiac rehabilitation after leaving hospital (39% vs. 51%).
It found that this lack of advice has contributed to a greater number of female heart attack survivors feeling less satisfied with the healthcare they have received (44% vs. 57%) – female heart attack survivors are also more likely suffer from mental health issues related to their heart attack (80% vs. 69%), the survey results reveal.
According to Heart Foundation Director of Health Strategy, Julie Anne Mitchell, women face a very real challenge to equality when it comes to their heart health and the Heart Foundation is calling on people to challenge gender bias and inequality.
“At every step of the patient journey from prevention, to diagnosis, treatment and ongoing care, women often fare far worse than men,” says Ms Mitchell.
“Women are less likely to have heart health checks, are slower to respond to the warning signs of a heart attack and even when they present to hospital, they are less likely to receive the same life-saving treatment as men.”
Providing an example of this, Ms Mitchell says that “women are significantly less likely than men to have procedures to restore blood flow to the heart, to have angiograms and bypass surgery”.
According to Ms Mitchell the reasons for this are complex but “lack of awareness, physical and hormonal differences in women, and unconscious bias in clinical decision-making are all part of the picture”.
“Challenging women’s own views about heart disease is an essential first step in improving their care and their outcomes,” adds Ms Mitchell.
“But we also encourage women to challenge the system if they believe their heart health concerns are not being heard. Too often women downplay their symptoms or don’t push for attention.
“More needs to be done to ensure women know heart disease is personally relevant and that the health system is there to support them.”
‘Heart disease is not just a male problem’
Ms Mitchell underscores the important fact that “heart disease is not just a male problem”, with “20 women dying of heart disease each day”.
Due to this the Heart Foundation is calling on the Federal Government to back a national awareness campaign in the May budget to drive home the risk of heart disease and stroke among women and the steps they can take to lower their risk.
“Our challenge is to ensure every woman knows the warning signs of a heart attack and knows to call Triple Zero (000) if they think something is wrong,” says Ms Mitchell.
She says that while “chest pain is a common warning sign” for heart attack, women are more likely to experience other heart attack warning signs, such as “nausea, fatigue, shortness of breath, cold sweats and, pain or discomfort in the jaw, hands, arms or back”, which are all common symptoms of other conditions such as the flu, over-exertion or just feeling run down.
“We also encourage Australian women aged 45 years and over, and Indigenous women aged from 30 years, to see their GP for a Heart Health Check to find out their risk of a heart or stroke in the next five years.
“Heart disease places a heavy burden on our community but if we can close the gap in how men and women are treated, we can make significant gains for Australian women’s heart health,” says Ms Mitchell.
