Study finds heart failure patients given different treatment based on gender

SOPHIA ANTIPOLIS, France While the treatment of heart failure has improved over the past two decades, a new study reported in the European Journal of Heart Failure finds that the use of evidence-based treatments appears to be imbalanced according to the gender of the patient.

In particular, the study found that female patients were less frequently treated with guideline-recommended medications, such as ACE inhibitors, angiotensin receptor blockers or beta-blockers and that doses were lower in female than in male patients.

However, the patient's gender was not the only influence on treatment; so was the gender of the physician. For example, the study demonstrated for the first time that drug treatment is more complete when female physicians are taking care of the patient. Thus, the use of ACE inhibitors or ARBs was significantly lower in female patients treated by a male physician than in male patients treated by either a female or male physician.

Similarly, the dose of ACE inhibitors and ARBs was highest in male patients treated by female physicians and was significantly different from the reverse combination (female patient, male physician). Dosage of beta-blockers was comparable in male patients irrespective of the physician's gender, whereas female patients treated by a male physician received the lowest doses.

The investigators thus concluded that "male patients with chronic heart failure are more likely to receive evidence-based drug treatment than female [patients]," particularly for the prescription of ACE inhibitors and dosage of beta-blockers.

The study was an evaluation of 1,857 consecutive patients treated at centers in Germany; treatment records involving 829 physicians were analysed with regard to evidence-based drug treatments to improve survival. Assessment of dosages was calculated as a percentage of averages documented in treatment guidelines for heart failure.