WASHINGTON — A man under 55 is more likely to have a heart attack than a woman, but a woman who has one is far more likely to die of it.
Researchers at the Yale University School of Public Health say a number of factors explain the difference.
In a small but telling study, researchers found that younger women tend to ignore signs of heart trouble and often delay life-saving treatment.
The research team did extensive interviews with 30 women between ages 30 to 55 who had suffered a heart attack. They found these women put off getting medical care, and often thought their symptoms were signs of something else.
The findings did not surprise Dr. Susan Bennett, a consulting cardiologist with the MedStar Heart and Vascular Institute.
Bennett says the findings give some insight into just what is going through the minds of younger women who have heart problems. She says the study also serves as a sort of wake-up call for a medical community that is “not quite prepared to understand that a woman at 49 could have a heart attack.”
Bennett notes that the women in the Yale study all had significant risk factors, including diabetes, extra weight, high cholesterol and hypertension. She says that younger women should at the very least demand — and primary care doctors should perform — regular cardiac risk assessments to provide advanced warning of possible problems later on.
The big task then becomes convincing a woman to take action if her risk factors are high — especially those swamped with family and work obligations.
“There is a saying that when you take care of the mother, you take care of the child,” Bennett says.
She emphasizes that a woman who tries to pursue a heart-healthy lifestyle is actually setting a strong example for her kids, adding, “It is one thing to tell a child to eat right; it is another thing for the child to actually see you working on it.”
Bennett says far too many people adopt “an ostrich approach to health care — we think that if we put our head in the sand, nothing is going to happen.”
She says it is much better to deal with the painful truth, and helping patients cope is a big challenge for American health care providers.
The Yale findings were published in the American Heart Association journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.
