Compared to men, lesser female patients were admitted for heart ailments, Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS), at Dr Rajendra Prasad Government Medical College Hospital in Himachal Pradesh over a period of one year.

A prospective study by hospital doctors from 20 November 2016 to 19 November 2017 found that the ratio of male to female patients with this ailment was 3:1.  It showed a significant male predominance with the mean age of study population being 61.46 years. As many as 44.8 per cent patients were less than 60 years of age and more than half of the total study population (55.2 per cent) was in geriatric age group. All age groups had male preponderance except the age group of 71-80 years.

The hospital located at Tanda in Kangra district mainly caters to the rural population.

Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS) is a term used to describe a range of conditions associated with sudden, reduced blood flow to the heart. ACS is ta commonest mode of presentation among patients of Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) carrying high risk of mortality and morbidity.

The study to know the socio-demographic profile in patients with ACS admitted at the tertiary health care and teaching hospital is published in the first volume of HECS International Journal of Community Health and Medical Research in 2018.

It is authored by Dr Archna Gautam, a Post Graduate student, Department of Community Medicine, Dr Rajendra Prasad Government Medical College, Tanda; Dr P Bansal, Professor and Head and Dr R Chauhan, Assistant Professor in the department, and Dr V Chadha, a Senior Registrar with Government Medical College and Hospital, Chandigarh.

 “We can’t say that women don’t have heart ailments. Rather, even in villages now, the lifestyle of women is getting sedentary with greater risk of heart attacks. But there are multiple reasons, mainly social, for lesser female patients turning up at hospital. The women generally ignore their health issues in routine and don’t open up. The illiteracy also comes their way in villages,” said Dr Archna Gautam, the corresponding author.

The study is based on 201 patients diagnosed of ACS, who reported either to Emregency Room or to Cardiac or Medicine OPD and were admitted either in or in medical intensive cardiac care unit or in medical wards at the hospital.

Majority, 97.5 per cent, patients was from rural background, which is in consonance with the figure of rural populace in HP. While 40.3 per cent patients were educated up to middle standard,  few were graduates, 52.7 per cent patients were economically independent, 40.3 per cent solely dependent and 17 per cent were partially dependent on others.

Out of the study population, 36.8 per cent patients were having family income of Rs 5000-10,000 per month, while 27.4 per cent had family income of less than Rs 5,000 a month, explaining high level of stress of bearing responsibilities of their family with limited means of earning.