Cardiovascular Health and Disease in Women

Abstract

Each year approximately 2.5 million U.S. women are hospitalized for cardiovascular illness, which also claims the lives of 500,000 women annually; half these deaths are due to coronary heart disease¹. Despite the magnitude of this problem and its adverse repercussions on the national public health, we have insufficient information about preventive strategies, diagnostic testing, responses to medical and surgical therapies, and other aspects of cardiovascular illness in women. This lack of information is compounded by the less frequent participation of women in research studies; the difference has been due in part to the exclusion of women of childbearing age and in part to the exclusion of elderly women because of their frequent coexisting illnesses^2-4. Characteristics of patients and physicians that limit the participation of women in clinical trials and sex-specific psychosocial or economic factors remain largely unexplored.