A recent article in a prominent medical journal explored the disparity of resource utilization between men and women. More men than women have major cardiac procedures, including catheterization, performed. This is thought to be because of which of the following reasons?
A. Fewer outcome studies have studied women with these disease
B. The incidence of cardiovascular disease is lower in women
C. Men have better health insurance
D. Men receive too many cardiovascular procedures
E. Provider attitudes has led to this situation
Explanation: The correct answer is E. Attitudes of physicians has been shown to have a significant effect on the delivery of health care. Health providers believe men to be more likely to have cardiac disease than women and this has guided practice, leading to a larger amount of cardiac procedures for men, compared with women.
Fewer outcome studies have studied women because of the belief that cardiac disease is more common in men (choice A).
The incidence of cardiovascular disease in women is similar to that in men (choice B) across the entire life-span.
There is a significant disparity between men and women in the use of cardiovascular interventions in the absence of financial (i.e., insurance) barriers (choice C).
One study has reported that women receive more appropriate cardiac services than men and that major interventions in men are over-utilized (choice D), but this does not explain the overall disparity.