Women "dying unnecessarily from heart attacks"

PanARMENIAN.Net - Two women a day are dying unnecessarily from heart attacks in England and Wales because of a gender gap in awareness, diagnosis and treatment, CNN cited a leading health charity as saying.

The British Heart Foundation (BHF) released research on Monday, September 30 that estimates that more than 8,200 women died between 2003 and 2013 as a result of receiving worse treatment than men.

The charity wants to end the misconception that heart attacks are a male disease and to encourage women to know the risks and symptoms -- twice as many women in the UK die of coronary heart disease than of breast cancer.

As well as being more likely to receive substandard treatment, women suffer 50% higher rates of misdiagnosis and poorer aftercare, the BHF said -- greatly increasing the risk of death.

Additionally, certain risk factors can be more dangerous for women. One of the studies suggests that smoking, high blood pressure and diabetes increase the likelihood of heart attacks more in women than in men.

A global review has also shown that women are, on the whole, slower to seek medical help than men. The time between symptoms first appearing and arrival at hospital varies from 1 hour 24 minutes to 3 hours 30 minutes for men. For women, it was between 1 hour 48 minutes and 7 hours 12 minutes.