The National Coalition for Women with Heart Disease announced the need for better training for doctors in diagnosing and treating heart failure in women. Their survey results also point to more consideration of the financial and mental health consequences of heart failure among women and better patient education for women who have heart failure.
The main areas where improvement is needed are: reducing misdiagnoses of heart failure in women, addressing mental health issues associated with heart failure, improving access to support groups, providing better accessibility to rehabilitation, improving doctor/patient communication, improving access to insurance and offering information to patients on awareness.
As the leading cause of hospitalizing in women over the age of 65, women account for 50 percent of all heart failure-related hospital admissions. Heart failure puts women at a greater risk for heart attack, can lead to depression and a reduced quality of life.
These findings come after WomenHeart launched their first national campaign on heart failure and women in November, 2014. The campaign included a patient survey as well as two telephone focus groups and two in-person roundtable discussions on heart failure.
