Systemic inequities are putting women’s health and lives at risk: Heart and Stroke report – CTV
February 1, 2023
A new report from the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada is highlighting ‘significant inequities’ in women’s heart and brain health care that is disproportionately affecting racialized and Indigenous women, members of the LGBTQ2S+ community and those living with low socioeconomic status, among others.
The report, released Wednesday, says gaps in research and care – compounded by a lack of awareness of the distinct heart disease and stroke risk factors women face — are putting lives at risk.
The report says that, in general, women who have a heart attack are less likely than men to receive the treatments and medications they need or get them in a timely way, and they are more likely than men to die in the year afterwards. In 2019, 20 per cent more women in Canada died of heart failure than men, and 32 per cent more women died of stroke than men, according to Heart and Stroke. The report says heart disease and stroke claimed the lives of more than 32,200 women in 2019 – or one life every 16 minutes.
