For better cardiac care for women, we need to improve research participation

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2025-08-31 18:55

Australia; International

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We need to be including women more in heart research, according to international researchers who say that heart disease looks different and has different outcomes for women compared to men. The team looked at cardiovascular clinical trials – including some from Australia – between 2017 and 2023 to analyse how many women were included, and while women’s participation has been improving in some areas they are still consistently underrepresented in these trials, which inform the evidence-based care that doctors provide. The study also looked at women’s participation relative to how common the disorders in different sexes were, and found women were overrepresented in obesity studies and pulmonary hypertension trials, but underrepresented in several other high-risk fields.

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Journal/
conference: JAMA Network Open

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: Cedars-Sinai Smidt Heart Institute, USA

Funder: This work was supported by contracts from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institutes (contract No. N01-HV-068161, N01-HV-068162, N01-HV-068163, and N01-HV-068164; grant No. U01 HL064829, U01 HL649141, U01 HL649241, K23 HL105787, K23 HL125941, K23 HL127262, K23HL151867, T32 HL069751, R01 HL090957, R03 AG032631, R01 HL146158, R01 HL146158-04S1, R01 HL124649, R01 HL153500, and U54 AG065141), General Clinical Research Center (grant No. MO1-RR00425 from the National Center for Research Resources), National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (grant No. UL1TR000124), Department of Defense (grant No. PR161603), Gustavus and Louis Pfeiffer Research Foundation,Women’s Guild of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Ladies Hospital Aid Society ofWestern Pennsylvania, QMED, Edythe L. Broad and the Constance AustinWomen’s Heart Research Fellowships (Cedars-Sinai Medical Center), Barbra StreisandWomen’s Cardiovascular Research and Education Program (Cedars-Sinai Medical Center), Society forWomen’s Health Research, Linda Joy PollinWomen’s Heart Health Program, Erika GlazerWomen’s Heart Health Project, Adelson Family Foundation (Cedars-Sinai Medical Center), Robert A. Winn Diversity in Clinical Trials Career Development Award, and the Anita Dann Friedman Endowment inWomen’s Cardiovascular Medicine & Research. Conflict of Interest Disclosures: Dr Navar reported receiving personal fees from Amgen, Arrowhead, AstraZeneca, Bayer, Eli Lilly, Esperion, Janssen, Merck, New Amsterdam, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Pfizer, Roche, and Silence Therapeutics outside the submitted work. Dr Mulvagh reported receiving personal fees from Novo Nordisk and Merck outside the submitted work. Dr Januzzi reported receiving grants from Abbott Diagnostics, Applied Therapeutics, AstraZeneca, HeartFlow, and Novartis; personal fees from Abbott, AstraZeneca, Beckman- Coulter, Boehringer-Ingelheim, Bristol-Myers, Intellia, Jana Care, Novartis, Pfizer, Merck, Roche Diagnostics, and Siemens; serving on data safety monitoring boards or end point committees for Abbott, AbbVie, Bayer, CVRx, Pfizer, Roche Diagnostics, and Takeda; and owning equity in Imbria Pharmaceuticals and Jana Care outside the submitted work. Dr Lala-Trindade reported receiving grants and personal fees from Abiomed, AstraZeneca, Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim/Eli Lilly, Cytokinetics, Cordio Medical, Lexicon, Merck, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Sequana Medical, Tenax, and Zoll outside the submitted work. Dr Guerrero reported receiving grants from Edwards Lifesciences (paid to institution) outside the submitted work. Dr Gulati reported serving on a data safety monitoring board for Merck and receiving personal fees from New Amsterdam and Medtronic outside the submitted work. No other disclosures were reported.

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