Previous reports have found that although women are less likely to experience a heart attack than men, they are more likely to die afterward. Now, Scottish researchers suggest that this may be because women receive inferior care.

Our results “support the view that if women have access to the same quality of care as men then survival will be the same,” senior author Dr. Christopher G. Isles, from the Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary, and colleagues note.

The findings, which appear in the medical journal Heart, are based on a study of 966 men and 597 women who were admitted with a first heart attack to a hospital in Scotland between 1994 and 2000.

During a follow-up period of about 3 years, 41 percent of men and 51 percent of women died. Although the initial analysis showed a heightened death risk for women, this disappeared after accounting for other factors, such as age, smoking, and additional diseases.

Further analysis showed that women were more likely than men to be treated with cholesterol-lowering drugs, such as Zocor and Lipitor, but less likely to receive beta-blockers, such as Lopressor and Inderal, used to treat high blood pressure, angina and other cardiac conditions. In contrast, men and women were equally likely to be treated with clot-busting drugs.

Based on these findings, the researchers note that “it is tempting to speculate” that the survival differences reported in other studies may reflect sex bias in the way patients are treated, as well as in other factors such as age.

SOURCE: Heart, March 2005.