‘It was my heart’: Women with heart disease face barriers to care in Canada, report says
Global News
Heart attacks and strokes are the leading cause of premature death for women in Canada, yet little progress has been made to address inequities in diagnosis and treatment.
Heart attacks and strokes are the leading cause of premature death for women in Canada, yet little progress has been made to address systemic inequities in how these conditions are diagnosed and treated.
That’s according to a new report titled System Failure released Wednesday from the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, which identifies alarming gaps in diagnostics, care and even basic understanding of risk factors and symptoms that exist for women with heart and brain disease in Canada.
Half of women who experience a heart attack have their symptoms go unrecognized because health workers and patients alike are often unaware that men experience symptoms differently than women, the report says.
“Heart disease for the longest time has been on decline in men and it’s been static or even in some groups, in young women in particular, on the rise,” says Dr. Tara Sedlak, a cardiologist based in Vancouver.
“The concern is that if we don’t take care of some of these early signs and symptoms, if we don’t take care of the risk factors, that it could continue to rise and not only will be the number one premature cause of death (for women), but will be a real leading, worldwide health issue for women.”
Biological differences mean that women face different risk factors and at different points in their lives than men, the report highlights.
For example, pregnancy and menopause can lead to health conditions that increase the risks of heart disease and stroke. Scientific studies also show smoking, high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, physical inactivity and depression also all have a greater impact in females.
The report is a follow-up to a pair of reports completed by the Heart and Stroke Foundation in 2018 that drew attention to systemic inequities that compromise women’s heart and brain health in Canada.
