Cardiovascular Health and Disease in Women

Abstract

...In January 1992, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute\nconvened an invitational conference, "Cardiovascular Health and Disease in\nWomen," to highlight new information derived from epidemiologic and clinical\nresearch that was appropriate for clinical application and that required wider\ndissemination and to identify gaps in contemporary knowledge that impeded the\ndelivery of optimal cardiovascular care to women. In addition to addressing\ngeneral issues of the cardiovascular health of women, this article summarizes\nthe recommendations of the conference....Research should focus on aspects of\ncardiovascular disease that are unique to women, or areas in which comparisons\nbetween women and men are unavailable or inadequate. When elderly people are\nunderrepresented in research studies, women are disproportionately excluded. \nWomen should be encouraged by their physicians to participate in research\nstudies; adequate diversity in terms of age, race, ethnic group, culture, and\nsocioeconomic status should be present in the groups of women studied. \nPrerandomization stratification according to sex has been recommended for\nlarge clinical trials to permit separate evaluation of the sexes. The\ninfrequent inclusion of women in clinical research until very recently\nwarrants scrutiny to clarify whether women have been excluded from\nparticipation for medical reasons (such as existing illnesses) and why they\nhave not participated in research studies for which they do qualify. Few\nregistries from large clinical trials are available for evaluation of the\noutcomes of women who did not participate in the randomized trial; such\ninformation would be useful in identifying the reasons for women's\nnonparticipation and clarifying whether those women fared differently from the\nparticipants.