by Tan Weizhen, TODAY, 9 Apr 2012
The first nationwide study to find out how heart disease differs between the sexes has found that, among other things, women have different symptoms and face greater risk than men.
These findings could change the way that public education is conducted for women on the disease, as well as the treatment of female patients, according to National University Heart Centre Associate Professor Carolyn Lam.
Assoc Prof Lam is part of the team which studied data on 15,151 heart attack patients who were admitted to six public hospitals here. Of these, 4,196 were female patients.
The study, which was released yesterday at a Singapore Heart Foundation symposium, also found that female patients face more complications than males and have a higher number of co-existing conditions such as depression and an increased heart rate.
By the time female patients are admitted, they are typically 10 years older than men on average, according to the study.
Assoc Prof Lam attributed this to two possible factors: "They tend to wait, till their heart disease has become more advanced ... (also) their risk of heart attacks goes up - more than men - after menopause, when the protective female hormones are gone."
Many women have the misconception that heart disease is "a man's disease" - which is "totally wrong", said Assoc Prof Lam.
Minister of State (Health) Amy Khor, who was the guest of honour at the symposium, noted that one "weak link" among women is the lack of exercise. She referred to a recent survey, which showed that women are "significantly less physically active" than men, due to family commitment or lack of time.
The data for the heart disease study was taken between January 2000 to December 2005 from the National University Hospital, National Heart Centre, Singapore General Hospital, Tan Tock Seng Hospital, Changi General Hospital and Alexandra Hospital.
The first nationwide study to find out how heart disease differs between the sexes has found that, among other things, women have different symptoms and face greater risk than men.
These findings could change the way that public education is conducted for women on the disease, as well as the treatment of female patients, according to National University Heart Centre Associate Professor Carolyn Lam.
Assoc Prof Lam is part of the team which studied data on 15,151 heart attack patients who were admitted to six public hospitals here. Of these, 4,196 were female patients.
The study, which was released yesterday at a Singapore Heart Foundation symposium, also found that female patients face more complications than males and have a higher number of co-existing conditions such as depression and an increased heart rate.
By the time female patients are admitted, they are typically 10 years older than men on average, according to the study.
Assoc Prof Lam attributed this to two possible factors: "They tend to wait, till their heart disease has become more advanced ... (also) their risk of heart attacks goes up - more than men - after menopause, when the protective female hormones are gone."
Many women have the misconception that heart disease is "a man's disease" - which is "totally wrong", said Assoc Prof Lam.
Minister of State (Health) Amy Khor, who was the guest of honour at the symposium, noted that one "weak link" among women is the lack of exercise. She referred to a recent survey, which showed that women are "significantly less physically active" than men, due to family commitment or lack of time.
The data for the heart disease study was taken between January 2000 to December 2005 from the National University Hospital, National Heart Centre, Singapore General Hospital, Tan Tock Seng Hospital, Changi General Hospital and Alexandra Hospital.
According to Assoc Prof Lam, it took a few years for the data, which was collected by the Singapore Cardiac Data Bank, to be "cleaned up" before analysis could be carried out.
The professor said she was inspired to start the study after she came back from the United States, where awareness on heart disease among women was high.
"I wanted to know if it was just a Western phenomenon, but we found out it was exactly the same (trend) here," she said.
She noted that generally, the medical profession worldwide had "ignored" women in this area until recently.
National University of Singapore final-year medical student Crystal Soh, who was the only undergraduate in the research team, is writing a paper on the study, and hopes to publish it in a medical journal by the end of the year.
The study found that women...
by Tan Weizhen
by Tan Weizhen
- Have different symptoms from men, such as pain in the jaw and neck, difficulty in breathing. In contrast, men may suffer chest pain and feel faint.
- Who have conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes and kidney failure are at higher risk to suffer from heart disease, compared to men.
- With acute coronary syndrome have higher mortality rate: They are twice as likely to die as men. Their condition is also more complicated by the time they are admitted, as they wait longer before seeking treatment.
- On average, women are older than men by 10 years by the time they are admitted for heart diseases.
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