Cardiovascular disease in women presents on average 10 years later compared to men, often accompanied by more comorbidities and atypical symptoms that complicate identification and diagnosis.
Systematic Review
Women present with cardiovascular disease 10 years later than men, often with atypical symptoms and more comorbidities, highlighting the need for sex-specific approaches in research and practice.
Cardiovascular disease is the number one cause of death for women. In an effort to reduce cardiovascular burden for women, identifying risk factors and increasing awareness of sex differences are fundamental. This systematic review examines cardiovascular disease risk for women. A search of the literature was undertaken using key health databases. Search terms used were cardiovascular disease AND women OR gender. Additional references were manually identified from this literature; 58 articles were reviewed in total. On average, cardiovascular disease presents 10 years later in women compared to men. By this time, they are more likely to suffer from more comorbidities, placing them at higher risk. The complexity of cardiovascular disease identification in women is accentuated through atypical symptoms, and has the potential to lead to delayed and/or misdiagnosis. It is clear through identifying sex differentiation in cardiovascular risk factors that there has been an increased awareness of symptom presentation for women. In light of the sex differences in risk factors, sex-specific aspects should be more intensively considered in research/practice to improve clinical outcomes for female cardiovascular disease patients.
Worrall‐Carter et al. (2011) conducted a systematic review in Cardiovascular disease. Sex-specific risk factors and presentation vs. Men was evaluated on Cardiovascular disease risk and presentation. Cardiovascular disease in women presents on average 10 years later compared to men, often accompanied by more comorbidities and atypical symptoms that complicate identification and diagnosis.