london according to new research after surviving a heart attack the proportion of patients who experience a repeat attack within a year fall between 2008 and 2017 with a greater decline in women than men the research was published today in the american heart associations flagship journal circulationdespite the improvement the rate of recurrent heart attacks hospitalisation for heart failure and death remain high in heart attack survivors secondary events after a heart attack may be prevented by ensuring that patients receive guidelinerecommended treatments to lower the risk for recurrent heart disease and death after hospital discharge said sanne a e peters phd lead author of the study and senior lecturer at the george institute for global health in collaboration with imperial college london united kingdom while the number of people dying from a heart attack has decreased substantially over the past few decades those who survive are at increased risk to experience another heart attack or to die within a year after they leave the hospital to examine the change in rates and compare the changes in men and women researchers used data from medicare and commercial health insurers on more than 770000 women and more than 700000 men who were hospitalised for a heart attack between 2008 and 2017 researchers looked at the rates of recurrent heart attacks procedures to open clogged heart arteries and hospitalisations to treat heart failure during the first year after hospital discharge following a heart attack among medicare patients the rate of death from all causes was also tracked the researchers found that between 2008 and 2017 the ageadjusted rates in terms of the number per 1000 personyears recurrent heart attack declined from 892 to 723 in women and from 942 to 813 in men overall however the rate did not decline in women aged 2154 years old or in men aged 5579 recurrent heart disease event rates either heart attack or undergoing a procedure to open clogged arteries declined from 1663 to 1333 in women and from 1981 to 1768 in men hospitalization due to heart failure rates declined from 1774 to 1581 in women and from 1629 to 1561 in men and death rates from any cause in those age 66 and older declined from 4032 to 3895 in women and from 4361 to 4179 in men improvements in the emergency treatment of heart attacks and better treatment options for people who survive a heart attack may explain the overall decline peters saidas for the lack of decline in recurrent heart attacks in younger women and older men peters said they dont know why the rates were different in these populations in women it could be that younger women and their treating physicians may be more likely to miss signs of worsening heart disease for recurrent heart attack recurrent heart disease events and heart failure hospitalizations there was a proportionately greater reduction over time in women than men the sex differences persisted in the most recent year studied in 2017 there