Australian women less likely to be screened for heart disease

New research from Australia has shed light on a gender disparity when it comes to being screened for cardiovascular disease.

It appears that women are significantly less likely to be checked by a medical professional for the life-threatening disease, a disturbing finding considering heart disease kills more women than men each year.

The study, conducted by researchers at the George Institute for Global Health and the University of Sydney, both in Australia, was published in the journal Heart.

The trial included more than 53,000 patients across 60 locations in Australia.

Findings indicated that men were much more likely to have their heart disease risk factors checked by their general physician and that the odds of being treated with the appropriate preventative medicines were 37 percent lower for younger women who were also at a high risk of developing heart disease.

Overall, women were 12 percent less likely to be appropriately screened compared to men, the study showed.

"Unfortunately, there is still the perception that heart disease is a man's disease,” said Julie Redfern, an author on the study and an associate professor at the George Institute for Global Health, in a statement. “This is not the case here in Australia, the U.K. or the U.S., and we fear that one of the reasons more women are dying from heart disease is because they are not being treated correctly, including not even being asked basic questions about their health.”

Karice Hyun, an author on the study and a PhD student at the University of Sydney, said it is unacceptable that women are underserved by their medical providers when it comes to cardiovascular disease.

“If these findings are representative, many women could be missing out on life saving treatment right now—just because of their age and gender,” Hyun said. “This fundamentally needs to change. We need a system wide solution to addressing these very worrying gaps in heart disease-related healthcare to ensure women are treated equally across the health system."

But for both men and women, the study showed there is still work to do in ensuring they are all getting screened appropriately. Data showed that just 43.3 percent of all patients had necessary risk factors recorded and only 47.5 percent of patients at high risk for the disease were given preventative medications.

"These findings really show that we need to do a better job of preventing and tackling cardiovascular disease for all Australians if we have any hope to reducing the death toll,” Redfern said.