Prevalence:
Worldwide, 8.6 million women die from heart disease each year,
accounting for a third of all deaths in women. Three million women
die from stroke each year. Stroke accounts for more deaths among
women than men (11% vs 8.4%) with additional risk for CHD unique to
women related to oral contraceptive use in combination with
smoking.
8 million women in the US are currently living with heart
disease; 35,000 are under age of 65. Four million suffer from
angina.
435,000 American women have heart attacks annually; 83,000 are
under age 65; 35,000 are under 55. The average: 70.4.
42% of women who have heart attacks die within 1 year, compared
to 24% of men.
Under age 50, women’s heart attacks are twice as likely as
men’s to be fatal.
267,000 women die each year from heart attacks, which kill six
times as many women as breast cancer. Another 31, 837 women die
each year of congestive heart failure, representing 62.6% of all
heart failure deaths.
At-Risk:
71% of women experience early warning signs of heart attack with
sudden onset of extreme weakness that feels like the flu - often
with no chest pain at all. Medical professionals are challenged to
respond to women's milder symptoms, acting with insufficient
guidelines.
Nearly two-thirds of the deaths from heart attacks in women
occur among those who have no history of chest pain.
Smoking, diabetes and abnormal blood lipids erase a
woman’s estrogen protection.
Women who smoke risk having a heart attack 19 years earlier than
non-smoking women.
Women with hypertension experience a risk of developing CHD 3.5
times that of females with normal blood pressure. High blood
pressure is more common in women taking oral contraceptives,
especially in obese women.
Women with diabetes have more than double the risk of heart
attack than non- diabetic women. Diabetes doubles the risk of a
second heart attack in women but not in men. Diabetes affects many
more women than men after the age of 45.
23% of white women, 38% of black women, and 36% Mexican American
women are obese. Obesity leads to an increased risk of premature
death due to cardiovascular problems like hypertension, stroke and
CAD.
The age-adjusted rate of heart disease for African American
women is 72% higher than for white women, while African American
women ages 55-64 are twice as likely as white women to have a heart
attack and 35% more likely to suffer CAD.
Marital stress worsens the prognosis in women with heart
disease.
Compared to Men:
Men's plaque distributes in clumps whereas women’s
distributes more evenly throughout artery walls. This results in
women's angiographic studies being misinterpreted as
“normal”.
Women wait longer than men to go to an emergency room when
having a heart attack and physicians are slower to recognize the
presence of heart attacks in women because
“characteristic” patterns of chest pain and EKG changes
are less frequently present.
After heart attack, women are less likely than men to receive
beta blockers, ACE inhibitors and aspirin - therapies known to
improve survival. This contributes to a higher rate of
complications after heart attacks in women, even after adjusting
for age.
38% of women and 25% of men will die within one year of a first
recognized heart attack.
Women are twice as likely as men to die within the first few
weeks after suffering a heart attack.
46% of women and 22% of men heart attack survivors will be
disabled with heart failure within six years
Women are two to three times as likely to die following heart
bypass surgery. Younger aged women between the ages of 40-59 are up
to 4 times more likely to die from heart bypass surgery than men
the same age.
Studies show women who are eligible candidates to receive
life-saving clot-buster drugs are far less likely than men to
receive them.
Since 1984, more women than men have died each year from heart
disease and the gap between men and women’s survival
continues to widen.
Women receive fewer heart disease procedures than men, however,
more is not necessarily better in this setting and the best course
of treatment for a woman with heart disease has yet to be
established.
Women's hearts respond better than men's to healthy lifestyle
changes, yet only 2 percent of the NIH budget is dedicated to
prevention.
Women comprise of only 24% of participants in all heart-related
studies.