EDITORIALS
Gender differences in heart failure
Department of Hygiene and Epidemiology, University of Porto Medical School, Alameda Prof Hernani Monteiro, 4200-319 Porto, Portugal
Correspondence to:
Ana Azevedo, MD, PhD, Department of Hygiene and Epidemiology, University of Porto Medical School, Alameda Prof Hernani Monteiro, 4200-319 Porto, Portugal; anazev@med.up.pt
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
Ten years ago, a review in the journal Public Health set out an agenda for public health research in heart failure by identifying six areas where major gaps remained in knowledge (at that time).1 One of the six issues was titled "Are women getting a fair deal?", calling attention to how research into cardiovascular diseases was noteworthy for the extent to which women were under-represented or excluded. The authors attributed this situation to an underlying belief that cardiovascular disease is primarily a male problem.
This belief was in fact a prejudice resulting from the confusion between absolute and relative measures! It is true that the incidence of cardiovascular diseases, particularly coronary heart disease and heart failure, is higher in men, particularly at younger ages. However, they are still a major cause of death and disability among women, more frequent than breast cancer and other diseases seen as major problems of
Register for free content
The full back archive is now available for all BMJ Journals. Institutional subscribers may access the entire archive as part of their subscription. Personal subscribers will also have access to all content when logged in. Non-subscribers who register have free access to all articles published before 2006 right back to volume 1 issue 1. Register here to access the free archive of all BMJ Journals.
Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.
