Female Heart Attack Patients Deal with More Serious Health Complications than Men

A recent study found that heart attacks affect women more seriously than men. Researchers at the Yale School of Medicine found that women were at a much higher risk of dealing with complications from a heart attack than male counterparts.

For the study, researchers monitored over 230,000 cases of hospitalized patients who suffered from an acute myocardial infarction (AMI) between 2001 and 2010. All of the patients were between the ages of 30 and 54.

Study results revealed that hospitalization rates were higher in men than in women. However, findings also showed that women tended to stay in the hospital longer with more serious health complications after treatments. Women also had a higher in-hospital death rate than men.

For future studies, researchers hope to identify underlying biological factors that could contribute to poor outcomes that are more regularly seen in female patients and potentially improve future treatments to prevent this.

As it stands, a cardiovascular issue claims the life of someone in the United States every 33 seconds, according to the Heart Foundaiton. Furthermore, heart attack claims the lives of 1 million annually. 

More information regarding the findings can be seen via the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.