Abstract
Introduction Gender differences were documented for several diseases. This might influence treatment
costs for the insurance companies as well as reimbursement of the health care facilities.
This manuscript deals with the possible economic implications of gender-related differences
in cardiovascular medicine.
Methods A systematical review of the literature reporting the impact of gender on health
care costs with special focus on cardiovascular medicine.
Results Women cause higher health care costs during their lifetime, but large part of the
difference compared with men is caused by pregnancy and birth, not by diseases. However,
after subtracting the costs for pregnancy and birth, there still remains a difference
with higher costs for women, although the origin of this disparity is not definitely
clear up to date. In cardiovascular medicine, especially the risk factor metabolic
syndrome including diabetes had a higher prevalence in women and was shown to have
a greater impact on cardiovascular disease compared with men. This concerned both
costs and outcome. But in contrast to this, women experienced poorer preventive treatment
of their metabolic syndrome, especially with regards to lipid levels. This influenced
the costs of hospital treatment as well as the prognosis, for example, following coronary
bypass grafting.
Comments The higher influence of several risk factors on cardiovascular disease in women should
lead to improved preventive strategies in female patients. Further research is necessary
to give more evidence for gender-related differences within the impact of several
risk factors on treatment costs. This could then also influence reimbursement strategies
taking these gender disparities into account.
Keywords
cardiac - health economics - outcomes
