Not just men, a significant number of women also die of heart attacks - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
May 5, 2022
A video is being shared widely on social media in which a voice can be heard saying that very few women die of heart attacks. Also, it is mentioned that only men die of heart attacks. Let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Only men die of heart attacks. Even if women die of heart attacks, their number is very less.
Fact: It is not true that only men die of heart diseases. A significant number of women also suffer from heart diseases. An official website of the United States government even mentions that women are more likely than men to die after a heart attack. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
When we searched on the internet about heart attacks among women, many official websites were found in the search results. According to ‘healthdirect’ (an Australian government-funded service), “Heart disease affects both sexes but often goes undetected in women. Although more men than women are admitted to hospital for heart attack, the number of deaths from heart attack in men and in women is roughly the same.” Also, ‘healthdirect’ has busted the myth – ‘Women don’t have heart attacks’, on their website.
An official website of the United States government even mentions that women are more likely than men to die after a heart attack. The ‘American Heart Association’ writes – “Heart disease is a killer that strikes more women than men, and is more deadly than all forms of cancer combined. While one in 31 American women dies from breast cancer each year, heart disease is the cause of one out of every three deaths. That’s roughly one death each minute.”
On the National Health Portal of India, it can be read that “coronary heart disease (CHD) is the leading cause of death for both men and women living in urban areas as compared to rural India.” The details regarding the number of men and women who died of ‘Acute myocardial infarction’ (also known as a heart attack) can be found in the ‘Report on Medical Certification of Cause of Death – 2019’. [Note: “The report on MCCD-2019, is based upon 15,71,540 total medically certified deaths (Male: 9,77,199 and Female: 5,94,341) accounting for 20.7 percent of total registered deaths in respect of 35 States/UTs who supplied data for the report”]. It can be seen that a significant number of women also suffer from acute myocardial infarction.
There are also some studies that differentiate the risk of heart attacks among men and women. Some of them can be read here, here, here, and here. Not only gender, but various other factors also influence the risk of heart diseases.
To sum it up, not just men, a significant number of women also die of heart attacks.