Prevention Matters

The heart attack gap between men and women is narrowing in good and bad ways for women. Two new studies show that the number of heart attacks is rising among middle-aged women and falling among men, but the risk of death after a heart attack is improving more for women than for men.

The percentage of Americans without major heart disease risk factors rose during the 1980s and 1990s, but our health is declining again, a new study shows. The number of people with obesity, diabetes, and high blood pressure is increasing, even though the percentage of smokers is still heading south, according to the study published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

One of the biggest concerns fueled by the obesity epidemic is what will be the long-term health implications of a generation of children that have high levels of obesity and overweight. Spanish researchers provide some insight in a study that found overweight and obese kids as young as 12 are showing early signs of heart disease.

Scientists in Barcelona analysed 80 obese and overweight kids with an average age of 12 and compared them with 60 lean youngsters. They found that larger kids had higher cholesterol and blood pressure, as well as more signs of pre-diabetes.

It's been feared that publication of outcomes for adult cardiac patients would make surgeons more defensive about their work, and lead them to avoid taking on higher-risk patients who may damage their statistics. However a new study in the UK, where death rates have been reported since 2001, are so good that experts there are calling for all surgical specialties to publish such data.

An analysis of more than 400,000 operations by the Society for Cardiothoracic Surgery shows outcomes in the UK have improved significantly since publication of that information began. The study also found more elderly and high-risk patients were now being treated, and that fewer patients are being cut open a second time due to complications like infections.

"We are now taking on older, sicker, higher-risk patients, and these patients, rather than doing worse because of their risk, are actually doing better than they did before," said Mr. Graham Venn, a cardiothoracic surgeon at Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital in London.

However, the data also shows that survival rates remain significantly worse for women than men, with the gap between the sexes failing to close.