May 3, 2023 – Women under 55 are twice as likely as men to be hospitalized again inside a 12 months after a heart attack, the National Institutes of Health reported this week.
The NIH said in a Press release that this disparity is probably going on account of higher rates of obesity, heart failure, depression and other risk aspects amongst women.
The study was funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, a part of the NIH. The report was published this week within the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
“It is not known whether women have a higher risk for cardiovascular and non-cardiovascular hospitalizations in the year following discharge,” the study says.
The study suggests that more focus is required on risk aspects in women ages 18 to 55 to enhance treatment and recovery after discharge, said corresponding creator Dr. Harlan Krumholz of the Yale School of Medicine.
“Researchers have known for some time that women ages 55 and younger have about twice the risk of dying in the hospital from a heart attack than men of the same age,” the NIH said. “However, it was unclear whether women also have a higher risk of cardiovascular and non-cardiovascular complications one year after hospital discharge following treatment for a heart attack.”
The researchers examined data from the VIRGO study (Variation in Recovery: Role of Gender on Outcomes of Young AMI Patients). It examines a big selection of risk aspects in ladies and men who've suffered a heart attack. The study included 2,007 women and 972 men in 103 hospitals. Their average age was 48 years and so they were ethnically diverse.
Almost 30% of patients were rehospitalized inside one 12 months of their first discharge after a heart attack. The risk of re-admission was almost twice as high for ladies (1.65 times higher).