Heart disease, a major killer of women in Norway

Which is more fatal disease in women? You might be thinking breast cancer because more and more research is being carried out on breast cancers but what the statistics say is different. Heart attack kills more women when compared with breast cancer. According to Statistics Norway’s last updated figures on causes of death from 2012, 645 women died of breast cancer. 1489 women died of heart attack.

Both in Norway and in Europe, the number of men dying from heart attack is lesser than women. On an average scale, women are ten years older than men are when they have heart attacks. Symptoms are very clear in men but it’s more diffused in women. Women’s symptoms of heart attack are different from men’s symptoms but the diagnosis and treatment are adjusted to men only.

“If you ask women, they often think that breast cancer is the disease that kills most women. When it comes to younger women this is correct, but not for women in total. Heart disease is the major killer of women in Norway,” says Maja-Lisa Løchen, She is professor of preventive medicine at UiT the Arctic University of Norway and senior consultant at the Department of Cardiology, University Hospital of North Norway.

“We possess a lot of knowledge on how women’s and men’s hearts and heart diseases differ from each other. But the diagnosis and treatment methods for women’s heart diseases are still not as well developed as those for men,” says Løchen.