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HowToPreventHeartDisease.com |
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Will Women Be Less Likely To Take Post-Heart Attack Drugs? Heart attack, also known as myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction, occurs when the flow of oxygen-rich blood to a section of heart muscle suddenly becomes blocked and the heart cannot get oxygen. If blood flow is not restored swiftly, the section of heart muscle begins to die. While the heart damage might not be obvious in some cases, it could cause severe or long-lasting problems in others. Sometimes, the victim might even end up with death. Hence, acting fast at first sign of heart attack symptoms could save life and limit damage to the heart. Treatment works best when it is given right after symptoms happen. Once diagnosis of a heart attack is confirmed or strongly suspected, doctors will begin treatments immediately to try to restore blood flow through the blood vessels supplying the heart. Doctors will either prescribe the patients with clot-busting medicines or recommend coronary angioplasty, a procedure used to open blocked coronary arteries. If the blockages are serious, coronary artery bypass grafting might be suggested by the doctors. After treatment, medications like ACE inhibitors, beta blockers and statins will usually be prescribed to heart attack survivors, both males and females, to prevent recurrence. However, according to a Canadian study, women seem to be less likely than men to take all the medications required after a heart attack to help prevent repeat episodes. Their findings were published online October 13, 2015 in the American Heart Association Journal: ‘Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes’.
Canadian researchers analyzed data on more than 12,000 heart attack patients who survived for at least a year in British Colombia, Canada between 2007 and 2009. They found that only one-third of all heart attack survivors, after leaving hospitals, filled all of the prescriptions for at least 80 percent of the year. Meanwhile, 65 percent of women under the age of 55 initiated their treatment on all prescribed drugs after a heart attack, compared to 75 percent of men in the same age group. For patients over 85, drug compliance was generally worse though the gender disparity was not much: 50 percent of men and 48 percent of women initiated appropriate medication therapy. But there was no difference between men and women in adherence to treatment. In other words, once on therapy, men and women would continue on it or drop out at the same rates. The prescriptions assessed were for medicines designed to help lower cholesterol and blood pressure, which are both associated with a lower risk of repeat heart attacks. It is possible that the doctors do not prescribe or the patients do not take their prescribed medications, or both. Unfortunately, the study could not find the exact reason for the gender differences because of its limitation: the study relied on prescription data to assess how often patients took recommended medications, a measure that could not determine when or whether doctors prescribed medicines or how long patients might have waited to fill those prescriptions. Nevertheless, the study did confirm previous research that showed women, particularly younger women, were less likely than men to receive recommended therapies after a heart attack. The researchers warned that both doctors and patients should move away from the traditional perception that cardiovascular disease is a man’s disease, and that heart disease medications might pose risks to younger women. Young women have much worse outcomes after suffering a heart attack than do men of the same age, so it is paramount that younger women should be treated aggressively, especially when there are medications that work. Patients should ask their doctors whether they have been prescribed all of the medications that are known to benefit heart attack survivors, keep themselves informed about therapies and what they are used for by visiting trusted heart health information resources such as the American Heart Association, and make sure they take their medication as directed. Besides taking prescribed medications, patients are also advised to adopt heart-healthy lifestyle. For instance, they should eat healthy diet, maintain healthy weight, manage stress, have regular physical activity, and quit smoking if they are smokers.
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