I can't think of any good reason why women get a little better health care than men get. However, evidence of this continues to emerge. A recent study demonstrating this unpopular fact was published in the September 27, 2005, issue of Neurology, the official journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Melinda Smith and her co-investigators looked at stroke care between 2000 and 2002 at seven acute-care hospitals in Corpus Christi, Texas, which included all Nueces County hospitals. Patients who have been hospitalized for a stroke, a condition in which impaired circulation causes brain damage, should receive a battery that is the backbone of the test. Every patient with a stroke should have an echocardiogram, a soundwave-based examination showing images of the heart and its various moving parts. This helps to indicate whether the heart is more likely to produce strokes by sending clots or other substances in the brain's digestive tract, as well as identifying problems affecting the heart itself. In addition, patients who are believed to have a stroke in the frontal lobe of the brain (which works in most cases) should undergo screening tests for carotid arteries. The carotid arteries are the two blood vessels that line the front of the neck that carries blood in front of the brain. The researchers found that although 57% of men with a stroke received an echocardiogram, this study was given to only 48% of women with a stroke. And although 71% of men received carotid imaging, the test was given to only 62% of women. Statistics showed that this difference was too great to be calculated by chance. In addition, researchers actively sought legitimate medical reasons to report inconsistent tests — such as differences in stroke risks or differences in awareness of their occurrence — but found that these could not answer the difference, either. In fact, the rate of testing even in men falls below the standards of care — and perhaps in some societies — but in the present discussion, emphasis on differences in care given to both . Therefore, if these effects are not universal in practice elsewhere, the sad truth is that if you are a woman with a stroke, your care will not be as good as if you were a man. And, unfortunately, the bias in stroke care shown by these researchers was not a unique example. The authors reviewed the results of other studies that showed:
Sixty-two percent of stroke deaths in the United States occur in women.
Women have lower incidence of stroke but more severe side effects than men.
One hospital study showed that in their emergency department women who had a stroke were diagnosed faster than men with a stroke.
An international, hospital-based study showed fewer studies on brain painting, cardiovascular imaging, in women than in men.
Women who have suffered a stroke are less likely to receive blood thinners than men.
Also, women were less likely to receive carotid artery surgery than men.
In addition, gender differences in the treatment of cardiovascular disease have also been demonstrated in Corpus Christi and elsewhere. Therefore, as the authors point out, the gender differences in medical care probably go beyond the diagnosis and treatment of strokes. One unmistakable conclusion: The medical community still has a long way to go in providing equitable care for all patients entrusted with its care. (C) 2005 by Gary Cordingley
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