Women are told to improve their lifestyle to prevent heart disease while men are advised to take statins. That’s the finding of a study presented today at ESC Asia, a scientific congress organised by the European Society of Cardiology (ESC), the Asian Pacific Society of Cardiology (APSC), and the Asean Federation of Cardiology (AFC).

Our study found that women are advised to lose weight, exercise and improve their diet to avoid cardiovascular disease but men are prescribed lipid lowering medication,” said study author Dr. Prima Wulandari of Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, US. “This is despite the fact that guideline recommendations to prevent heart disease are the same for men and women.”

Previous studies have shown that women with cardiovascular disease are given less aggressive treatment compared with men.2,3 This study investigated whether these sex differences extend to the prevention of cardiovascular disease.

The study used data from the ...