Medical Researchers Still Skip Gender-based Data (women still don't count)
Medical Researchers Still Skip Gender-based Data
A problem flagged by Dr. Bernadine Healy, the National Institutes of Health's first female leader, more than two decades ago, continues and it's detrimental for all women, particularly so for women of color.
(WOMENSENEWS)-- The federal Food and Drug Administration plans a public information campaign later this year to encourage women to participate in clinical trials. "Women should be aware of the need for them to participate in these trials," Marsha Henderson, the FDA's assistant commissioner for women's health, said in a recent phone interview.
The agency is also enhancing guidance and training for FDA investigators to try to ensure the inclusion of more diverse populations in drug studies.
It's a sound idea, but not new. In 1991, Dr. Bernadine Healy, then director of the National Institutes of Health, and the first woman to hold the post, made an unsettling disclosure. Women who had heart attacks were not getting the same quality of care as men because they often had different symptoms. That raised their odds of being misdiagnosed or improperly treated.
Twenty years later, in 2011, cardiovascular disease in women accounted for about 400,000 deaths, or 51 percent of all deaths in the United States attributable to heart disease. That means more women than men are still dying of heart disease.
For women of color, the impact is even greater. For instance, even though the incidence of breast cancer is lower in African American women than white women, women of color die from breast cancer at a higher rate. The reasons often go back to their access to health care--diagnosis and treatment may be delayed--and because they haven't been widely included in drug trials.
. . . . .
http://womensenews.org/story/health/150509/medical-researchers-still-skip-gender-based-data