AHA: Women Receive Less Cardiovascular Secondary Prevention

CHICAGO, Nov. 13 -- Women receive significantly less recommended secondary prevention for coronary artery disease than do men, researchers reported here.

However, the all-cause mortality difference between genders was not significant at seven years (21.5% versus 17.8%, P=0.09), said Leslie Cho, M.D., of the Cleveland Clinic, and colleagues, at the American Heart Association meeting.

Dr. Cho said that the lack of a significant difference in survival between the genders despite the significant treatment differences is difficult to interpret because a substantial proportion of men are not receiving secondary prevention according to guidelines either.

"Even in the current era, women receive less aggressive care compared to men," she said. "However, it is of note that both groups received substandard therapy."

The investigators analyzed the treatment of 2,462 consecutive patients referred to their institution for secondary prevention.

When first seen at the Cleveland Clinic, women were significantly less likely to be on antiplatelet therapy (76.6 % versus 85.0%, P

Female patients had similar or worse cardiovascular risk markers compared to male patients. The findings for women were:

• Older age (62.2 versus 59.4, P