Women and heart disease

Most studies of the impact of heart disease have been carried out with men. Relatively little is known about how women deal with heart attack or coronary bypass surgery during the recovery process and long term psychological, social and behavioural outcomes in female cardiac patients have not been systematically investigated. To address this deficiency, a large longitudinal study of women with heart disease was recently conducted by the Heart Research Centre.

The study aimed to investigate the experiences of women during the first year following a heart attack or coronary bypass surgery. Areas explored included lifestyle change, mood, social support, quality of life, marital and social adjustment, attitudes towards and beliefs about causal factors for heart disease. Hospital readmissions, further events and deaths were also documented. Hospitals participating in the project were The Royal Melbourne Hospital, Northern Hospital, Western Hospital, Melbourne Private Hospital. 260 women were consecutively admitted to these hospitals. Data were collected within three to five days of the event via semi-structured interviews and self report questionnaires while the women were still in hospital, during convalescence (six to eight weeks later), and after four and 12 months.

Results of this study have been extensively reported in refereed journals at major conferences. Findings will increase our understanding of how acute cardiac events affect women and should improve the management of female cardiac patients. The study has highlighted a number of areas where future more focused research is required.

Funding: Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing under the National Health Goals and Targets Program