April 25 (UPI) — Women with heart disease may be prescribed cholesterol-reducing statins less frequently than men, in contravention of recommended treatment guidelines, according to new research presented to a European Society of Cardiology conference in Athens, Greece, on Thursday.
The study of 1,452 coronary artery disease patients by Sweden’s Uppsala University found just 54% of women received the recommended statin medication to lower blood cholesterol levels compared with 74% of men, ESC said in a news release.
In addition, only 5% of women with stubbornly high cholesterol who required a statin plus ezetimibe, another cholesterol lowering drug, to bring their low-density lipoprotein “bad cholesterol” down to target levels, compared with 8% of men.
“Cholesterol-lowering drugs save lives and prevent heart attacks, and should be prescribed to all patients with coronary artery disease. Unfortunately, our study shows that women are missing out on these essential medications,” said study author Dr. Nina Johnston of Uppsala University.
ESC guidelines recommend blood cholesterol-lowering statins for all patients with coronary artery disease, also called chronic coronary syndrome, to alleviate symptoms and prevent heart attacks and death and that ezetimibe be also administered if the 80 mg maximum statin dose fails to lower LDL sufficiently.
With previous studies finding women less likely to meet target levels than men, the study’s objective was to discover whether women and men receive the same treatments.
The research team used the electronic health records of 1,037 men and 415 women with a chronic coronary syndrome diagnosis between 2012 and 2020, and who had never had a heart attack, to obtain cholesterol level data which they cross-referenced with dispensing data from the Swedish National Prescribed Drug Registry.
The scientists are now looking at possible factors to account for the discrepancies between the treatment provided to men, who were slightly younger on average at 68, and women whose average age was 70 years.
The results were based on a three-year follow-up period, but when the team delved deeper looking at treatment and cholesterol levels of women and men by age bracket — under 60, 60-69, 70-79 and 80 and older — they found treatment was at its highest for all groups at the time of diagnosis, but declined over the subsequent three years.
Again, the treatment fall-off over time was steeper in women with the percentage of women under 60 years of age still receiving medication after three years dropping to 52%, down from 65% the week after diagnosis. That compared to a drop of just 1% for men.
Women also met LDL cholesterol targets less frequently than men.
“Our findings should be a wake-up call about the undertreatment of women with heart disease,” warned Johnson.
“Equal prescribing practices are needed so that women receive all recommended therapies and are protected from adverse outcomes,” she said.
Cardiovascular disease kills more women than men, accounting for 45% of all deaths in women, more than all cancers across the ESC’s 57 member countries.
The study was funded by the European-arm of NASDAQ-listed California-based biotech giant Amgen and the Uppsala regional government.
