Unattended explanations on gender gaps in acute myocardial infarction. How can we understand gender gaps in infarction?

Abstract

Advances in cardiovascular diseases research have shown that there are differences in social groups, which have been solely explained by biomedical dimensions. Although there have been advances in the biological understanding of these diseases, they do not account for the complexity of the phenomenon. To address this, the introduction of psychosocial variables have shown that they may be useful to understand the manifestations and evolution of these conditions. Thus, gender gaps should not be studied exclusively from a biomedical perspective. This article reviews the explanations about the gender gaps in the expression of acute myocardial infarction based on gender stereotypes, as an alternative to the biomedical approach. Stereotypes can predict different consequences when they are used by health professionals or patients. Finally, alternatives are proposed to reduce the negative results of the gender stereotype activation when an acute myocardial infarction is suffered. Also new development lines in theoretical, methodological and interdisciplinary work are proposed.