Study of Men, Women With Heart Failure

Women tend to live longer with heart failure than men and tend to have a less severe form of the disease, a Duke University study in North Carolina finds.

The study of 11,642 patients, to be presented at the annual scientific sessions of the American Heart Association in Chicago, also found women with heart failure tended to be older and more ethnically diverse than men.

They also had greater incidences of diabetes and high blood pressure, and tended to report more symptoms and to be hospitalized more often than men, The Herald-Sun of Durham, N.C., reported.

Knowing more about the gender differences will help us make decisions about treatment, such as how aggressively to follow patients or which medication would be the most effective, said Pam Douglas, Duke’s chief of cardiovascular medicine and senior member of the study team.

She said women and heart disease had not been well studied previously and heart failure had been even more poorly studied.