(Paris) In the event of a heart attack in a public place, women are less likely than men to receive a heart massage from a witness, leading to a higher number of deaths among affected women, researchers said Monday.
Posted at 6:13 p.m.
Cardiopulmonary or cardiopulmonary resuscitation combines mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and chest compressions to pump blood to the brain of people whose hearts have stopped beating until help arrives.
As part of a study that will be presented at a medical conference in Spain but has not yet been peer-reviewed, Canadian doctors sought to understand how these gestures are handled differently in men and women.
They examined records of cardiac arrests that occurred outside of hospitals in the United States and Canada between 2005 and 2015, affecting nearly 40,000 patients.
Overall, 54% of patients received cardiopulmonary resuscitation from a witness, their research showed.
For cardiac arrests that occurred in a public place, such as on the street, 61% of women received a massage, compared to 68% of men.
Alexis Cournoyer, an emergency physician at Montreal’s Sacré-Cœur Hospital who conducted the study, told AFP that this gap “increases the mortality of women after cardiac arrest, that’s for sure.”
Cardiac arrest is one of the most common causes of death. And only about 10% of victims of cardiac arrest outside of a hospital survive, the Canadian team pointed out.
Researchers tried to find a reason for the gender gap.
One hypothesis is that passersby might be embarrassed by the idea of touching a woman’s breast without her consent, Dr. Cournoyer. And that age could influence the decision.
Their work did not confirm this: according to the data collected, women were less likely than men to receive cardiopulmonary resuscitation from a witness to their heart attack, regardless of their age.
Another possible explanation, according to Alexis Cournoyer, is a “barrier to recognition” for women who are victims of cardiac arrest, which is often mistakenly viewed as an event that only happens to men.
According to a study published in August in the journal Lancet Digital Health, men are more likely to experience chest pain before a cardiac arrest – a symptom commonly reported in the media – while women are more likely to experience shortness of breath.