Trying to determine how best to treat a patient, doctors often look to randomized clinical trials to guide their choice of what drug to prescribe. One of the most common illnesses is heart disease, and in recent years it’s been proven that, contrary to popular belief, more women have heart problems than men do; similarly, it’s more common for older people to have a heart condition than younger people. But do clinical trials reflect this reality? Apparently not. According to a new study published in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes by Quoc Dinh Nguyen, a professor at Université de Montreal’s Faculty of Medicine, researchers continue to test new heart drugs mostly on men (71 per cent), even though the majority of people affected by heart disease are women. Moreover, the male subjects have an average age of 63, when in fact the average age of people with the two most common heart diseases is between 68 to 69. In the last 20 years, the sex-and-age gap in drug trials has barely diminished, even though the population is ageing rapidly, said Nguyen, a geriatrician at the Centre Hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal (University of Montreal Hospital Center). “This under-representation of women and older people in clinical trials could have adverse consequences on care for both of these patient groups. The body of an older person doesn’t respond to many treatments and medications like that of a younger person. The correct dosage or intervention are often different for older patients and so, too, are… [Read full story]
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