Women with heart disease take fewer cholesterol-lowering medications than men

Spaniards we are from Europeans less aware of lethal effects heart pathologies. According to a survey conducted several years ago Daichi Sankyo in five countries (UK, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain) as part of the campaign We care about every heartbeatonly 19% of Spaniards (compared to 24% of respondents) know that Cardiovascular disease is already the leading cause of death in Europe and Spain..

Specifically in Spain, according to INE data for the first half of 2023, 27.1% of annual deaths in our country were caused by diseases of the circulatory system (including tumors 25.8%). In this sense, NHS Cardiovascular Health Strategy (ESCAV)which was put on the table in 2022 after four years of work by one hundred specialists and patients, is focused on promoting health from childhood. involving citizens in caring for the health of the cardiovascular system.

While this strategy may bear fruit, it remains a challenge. Among the problems, gender plays an important role: it is the leading cause of death for European and Spanish women. Almost 7,500 more women than men die in our country every year. for this type of pathology. Another important task is risk factors such as cholesterol, one of the main ones. There are also inequalities here, as research presented today in European Commission on Preventive Cardiology 2024scientific congress of the preventive industry European Society of Cardiology (ESC) which is celebrated these days in Athens.

The study notes that Women with heart disease take fewer cholesterol-lowering medications than men. “Cholesterol-lowering drugs save lives and prevent heart attacks and should be prescribed to all patients with coronary artery disease. Unfortunately, our research shows that women are missing out on these important medications,” says Nina Johnston of Uppsala University (Sweden) and author of the study.

Patients with the disease coronary arteriesor chronic coronary syndrome, require medications to relieve symptoms and prevent heart attacks and death. The European Society of Cardiology guidelines recommend statins for all patients to reduce blood cholesterol levels. If levels do not decrease sufficiently with the maximum tolerated dose of statins, patients should be treated with statins plus ezetimibeAnother cholesterol-lowering drug.

SAME RECOMMENDATIONS FOR CHOLESTEROL

Although recommendations for men and women are the same regarding treatment and target levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL, or “bad” cholesterol as it is often called), previous research has shown that women are less likely to achieve target levels than men. This work, conducted in Sweden and now presented at this congress, examines whether women and men receive the same treatment.

The analysis used electronic health records to obtain data on cholesterol levels, and information on dispensed medications was obtained from the Swedish National Prescription Drug Register. A retrospective observational study included 1037 men and 415 women diagnosed with coronary heart disease between 2012 and 2020 who have never had a heart attack.