Younger men under-treated before heart attack

A new study indicates that older males more likely to get preventive medications, while women and younger men account for a large number of heart attacks in the United States but are less likely than older men to receive preventive medications that lower heart attack risk.

While older males are still the most likely group to have heart attacks, researchers have shown that women and patients with premature disease make up a substantial portion of the heart attacks and very few of these patients are on the medications which research has shown to prevent heart attacks. Better methods of risk assessment could potentially allow us to target more people truly at high risk for an event and avoid excessive treatment of those who are low risk