The new findings add to the bigger picture, in part, by focusing on younger adults, said lead researcher Dr. Darcy Banco, an internal medicine resident at NYU Langone.
While heart attacks are more common among older adults, they do strike at younger ages, too.
In fact, Banco said, recent years have seen some “concerning trends” among younger Americans — particularly women.
A study published in February found that since 2010, heart disease deaths have been rising among U.S. women under 65. The researchers pointed to “worsening epidemics” of obesity and type 2 diabetes as likely culprits.
And over the past two decades, about one-third of women hospitalized for a heart attack were under 55, according to the American College of Cardiology (ACC).
The current study focused on ER care, using data collected from U.S. hospitals between 2014 and 2018.
It found that women were just as likely as men to arrive by ambulance, but their cases were less often judged as “emergent.” On average, women waited about 11 minutes longer for care.
That might sound like a small difference, but minutes matter in heart attack treatment, Banco pointed out.
According to medical guidelines, all patients arriving in the ER with possible heart attack symptoms should receive an electrocardiogram (EKG) within 10 minutes. EKGs record the heart’s electrical activity, and are the standard initial test in diagnosing a heart attack.