Younger Women Fare Worse Than Men After a Heart Attack, Study

Women of 55 and younger fare worse than their male counterparts after surviving a heart attack, a new study reveals.

The new finding presented at the American Heart Association's Quality of Care and Outcomes Research Scientific Sessions 2014, evaluated the health records and interviews of 3,501 people who had a heart attack between 2008 and 2012. The participants belonged to Spain and the U.S. On analyzing the data the researchers observed that women of age 55 or younger fare worse after surviving a heart attack compared to men of similar age.

The researchers noticed that a year after the heart attack  women were more likely to experience poorer physical functioning, excessive pain in the chest, poor quality of life, mental functioning and physical limitations.

"Previous studies show young women have a greater burden of pre-existing risk factors," said Rachel P. Dreyer, Ph.D., the study's first author and a post-doctoral research associate in cardiovascular medicine at Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Conn. "These factors have shown to be more strongly associated with adverse outcomes in women than men."

The researchers assume that women suffer from poor health outcomes due to varied socio-demographic and clinical as well biological reasons. These causes include undetected chest pain, improper access to care and increase in work/ life responsibilities that drastically impact the health of women.

"Our results can be important in developing treatments specifically designed to improve young women's recovery after a heart attack." Dreyer said. "We need to identify women at higher risk as well as think about care after they are discharged."

Similarly a Heart and Stroke Foundation study, found that women of below 55 have worse physical limitations, frequent recurrence of chest pain and worse quality of life when compared to men after a month of heart attack.

A 2013 study presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Session found that compared to white men, younger Hispanic, black and white women were more likely to experience higher hospital deaths after a heart attack.