Women, People of Color Wait Longer to See ED Doctor for Chest Pain

THURSDAY, May 5, 2022 (HealthDay News) — Among young adults with chest pain (CP) presenting to the emergency department, women and people of color wait longer to be seen by physicians, according to a study published online May 4 in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

Darcy Banco, M.D., M.P.H., from New York University Langone Hospital in New York City, and colleagues examined sex and racial differences in evaluation of CP among young adults (age 18 to 55 years) presenting to the emergency department. Data were included for 4,152 records, representing 29,730,145 visits.

The researchers found that compared with men, women were less likely to be triaged as emergent, to undergo electrocardiography, or to be admitted to the hospital or observation unit, but they had similar ordering of cardiac biomarkers. Men were seen more quickly (hazard ratio, 1.15) and were more likely to be admitted (adjusted odds ratio, 1.40) after multivariable adjustment. In adjusted analyses, people of color waited longer than White adults for physician evaluation (hazard ratio, 0.82), but there were no differences observed in hospital admission, triage level, electrocardiography, or cardiac biomarker testing according to race. Overall, 1.4 percent of adults in the emergency department and 6.5 percent of admitted adults were diagnosed with acute myocardial infarction.

“Whether or not the differences in chest pain evaluation directly translate into differences in outcomes, they represent a difference in the care individuals receive based on their race or sex, and that is important for us to know,” Banco said in a statement.

One author disclosed financial ties to the biopharmaceutical industry.

Abstract/Full Text