Page 2878 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 11 October 2022
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respect of both data collection and awareness raising of gender-specific risk factors in cardiovascular health.
The Heart Foundation strongly advocates for a reduction in disparities in cardiac care for women in Australia. In both Europe and North America, they have moved to recognise the role that sex and gender play in their guidelines for both heart attack and angina. Australia is now falling behind, and the use of outdated guidelines could be causing inadvertent harm to women. The collection of sex-specific data and updated guidelines are essential to improving outcomes for women.
I will now read from a case study from the Heart Research Institute. Faye, aged 53, shared her story to raise awareness. She goes to the gym regularly, swims every day, does not drink or smoke, and eats a healthy diet. She told her GP that she had been feeling abnormally tired for a few weeks. Her GP said to take it easy, and her symptoms were put down to changing hormones. One day, after an exercise class, Faye felt a pain in her jaw and at the back of her neck. The next thing she knew, she had been in hospital for five days and had an emergency quadruple bypass.
Faye said that this experience made her realise how quickly life could be taken away, and that, in that way, you realise not to sweat the small stuff, to look after your health, and listen to your body. Faye later found out that she had developed a vascular disease and was able to be put on medications to keep her healthy.
This is not the case for thousands of women in Australia. The Heart Foundation’s modelling found that nearly half a million women in Australia are at risk of cardiovascular disease because they are not on life-saving medications. If they were, approximately 21,000 heart events could be avoided over the next five years, with a saving of nearly $300 million in hospital costs alone.
Associate Professor Zaman found that medication is often under-prescribed for women or can cause side-effects due to gender differences. This may result in women being less inclined to take these medications. Community education and campaigns are essential to ensuring women get the care they need and understand the symptoms of cardiovascular disease, as well as how important it is to seek medical attention when things do not seem right. Community education is needed, and education of healthcare professionals themselves, especially in regard to unconscious bias that may be impacting their patient care.
It is important to note that the risk factors are not the same for all Australians, but social circumstances and inequalities do put people more at risk, especially in heart health for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women. Between 2014 and 2016, Indigenous women were up to twice as likely as non-Indigenous women to die from cardiovascular disease.
Geographical location, cultural background, health literacy, mental health illnesses and socio-economic factors are all key determinants of cardiovascular outcomes for women. Other factors that contribute to equity issues include women being more likely to engage in unpaid work and undertake caring duties, and pay gap disparities, which may be associated with lower socio-economic status, which in turn link to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease.
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