 | | | | Related Healthscout Videos | |
|
Page: << Prev | 1 | 2 | 3 | Next >> "This study points out the need for doing this kind of by-sex data. We need to understand why this difference is so -- is it the physiology of women or life circumstances? -- and what can be done to improve their quality of life," says Sherry Marts, vice president for scientific affairs for the Society of Women's Health Research, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit advocacy group that promotes the improvement of women's health through research.
For the study, which appears in the Nov. 24 issue of Psychosomatic Medicine, Phillips-Bute and her colleagues enrolled in a clinical trial 280 patients (96 women and 184 men) who were having bypass surgery. Before and then one year after the operation, the participants were given a battery of tests to measure their quality of life and cognitive performance.
The quality-of-life tests measured how easily they performed daily tasks, like dressing or preparing meals, as well their social support system, their feelings about their general health, and whether they suffered from anxiety or depression. Cognitive tests measured their memory, ability to concentrate, and do abstract thinking.
Text Continues Below
After controlling for other factors like age -- women who undergo bypass tend to be older than men, for instance -- level of education, race, weight, and history of illnesses like diabetes, Phillips-Bute found that, on average, both sexes had improvements in their cognitive abilities and in their quality of life. However, the women's quality of life improved far less than the men's, a finding that surprised her.
"I had anticipated that, after we controlled for all the pre-operative differences, we wouldn't see these issues remain," she says.
Her results, Phillips-Bute says, should make women and their doctors more aware of the importance of good post-operative care.
Page: << Prev | 1 | 2 | 3 | Next >>
|
.gif)
